Philip Lord Jr.

NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
2003

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The Navigators:

A Journal of Passages oev the* IhjLomL Waterways of New York, ( 1793)

The Navigators

A Journal of Par say e, on, the, Inland Waterways of New York,

1793

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"i'SfiARIES

Philip Lord Jr.

New York State Museum
2003

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The Navigators

A Journal of Passage, on , tk& Inlands Waterways of New York,

1793

Philip Lord, Jr.

New York State Museum

New York State Museum
Bulletin 498
2003

iii

Copyright © The New York State Education Department
Published 2003

Printed in the United States of America

Copies may be ordered from:

Publications Sales

New York State Museum

3140 CEC Albany, New York 12230

Phone: (518)402-5344

FAX: (518) 474-2033

Web address: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/publications.html

ISSN: 0278-3355
ISBN: 1-55557-142-5

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002115697

This book printed on acid free paper

Cover Image

This engraving of boats navigating the Mohawk, including a Durham boat passing through one of the WILNC wing
dams, was done in 1810 from an eyewitness account from 1807.

iv

“At night t home, often, hunted for a, stons, or a, stick for a, pillow-,
and in, the? morning, whew l took koid of the oar or setting pole,,
tkadto do it as gently as / could by reason, of the soreness of my hands,
which mere, mack blistered, Sic, in, rowing the boat.”

Rev. Elijah Woolsey, on the Oswego River, 1794

“This volume commemorates the bicentennial of the completion of the works
of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company in 1803, which opened a
continuous waterway westward for large Durham boats and transformed the
transportation history of the Nation.”

CONTENTS

PREFACE . viii

INTRODUCTION . 1

PROTOCOL . 2

chapter one — The Embarkation . 3

CHAPTER TWO — The Lower Mohawk . 9

chapter three — The Little Falls . 21

chapter four — The Upper Mohawk . 29

chapter five — The Great Carrying Place . 37

chapter six — Upper Wood Creek . 43

chapter seven — Lower Wood Creek . 47

chapter eight — Oneida Lake . 59

chapter nine — The Oneida River . . . 65

CHAPTER ten — The Oswego River . 75

CHAPTER ELEVEN — Oswego . 83

chapter twelve — Again to Three Rivers . 91

chapter thirteen — Return to New Rotterdam . 97

chapter fourteen — Excursion to Oneida Castle . 105

chapter fifteen — The Road to Whitestown . 113

chapter sixteen — At John Posts Landing . 121

chapter seventeen — Little Falls Revisited . 131

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN — Passage to Schenectady . 137

EPILOGUE . 144

SOURCE NOTES . 145

vii

BIBLIOGRAPHY

,151

Preface

On the morning of October 1st, 1793, Simon Desjardins and
Pierre Pharoux arrived in Albany on a Hudson River sloop
from New York. They were mounting an expedition to
view lands in the Black River country of northwestern New York,
on which they hoped to establish a new French settlement. Pharoux
and Desjardins were agents for the Compagnie de New York, a
French shareholder company whose mission was to secure lands for
the resettlement of French emigrants fleeing uncertain and often
dangerous circumstances following the French Revolution. They
were immediately joined by Marc Brunei, whom they had met on
their Atlantic passage aboard the American ship “Liberty.”

The trio had first to go overland to the Mohawk River
port of Schenectady, from which they would embark by batteau
on a voyage of the inland waterways that crossed New York. This
journey would see them fifteen days later on the very brink of the
Great Lakes at Oswego, returning once again to the streets of
Albany on November 9th. Their journal records a 40 day voyage
of discovery along the expanding American frontier.

The year 1793 was a significant one in the history of
westward transportation in New York State, and the Nation. The
old Mohawk/Oneida navigation corridor connecting the Hudson
Valley with the Great Lakes had served throughout the eighteenth
century as the only viable route for inland travel. However, as the
new nation contemplated opening up vast western territories to
settlement, and thereby expanding areas of agricultural produc¬
tion and markets for eastern goods, this network of natural water¬
ways was proving inadequate to the demand.

The year before, The Western Inland Lock Navigation
Company, New York’s first canal company, had been formed to
improve this navigation. By late in 1793, when the French
account was written, that company had already undertaken the
improvement of Wood Creek west of Fort Stanwix, the most frag¬
ile stretch of the transport corridor, and had just begun construc¬
tion of the Little Falls Canal, the first true canal in New York
State, and one of the first in the Nation.

The Journal of Castorland, which preserves this
account, was rescued from a Paris scrap pile in 1862, and the next

year transferred to the collections of the Massachusetts Historical
Society. The greater part of the journal, which covered the years
1793 to 1797, dealt with the establishment of Castorland itself, a
locale largely restricted to the western Adirondacks. It was, there¬
fore, the noted regional historian Dr. Franklin B. Hough who
immediately set about to transform this extraordinary French
journal, containing over 700 pages of detailed entries, into an
English translation.

The initial entries, limited mostly to 1793 and 1794, doc¬
ument expeditions to and from the Castorland area, before a semi¬
permanent establishment was made there, and so record the trans¬
portation route that is the subject of this present work. It is
Hough’s manuscript translation, now in the New York State
Library and previously published only in brief extracts, that has
made accessible to us the rich texture, and rare historical insights,
of this timely inland adventure.

It is fortunate, indeed, to have a first-person account of
travel by water along this route in the Autumn of 1793, capturing
images of the works of the Western Inland Lock Navigation
Company under construction as no other eyewitness could have.
But also to have an account of such comprehensive detail, the
record of constant and acute observation of both the cultural and
natural environment through which these waterways passed, pro¬
vides a unique opportunity of which every student of American
history should avail themselves.

This absorbing eyewitness account of the journey of
Desjardins, Pharoux, and Brunei records the adventure of travel
across New York two hundred years ago, and reveals, as no other
account has, the unique developments that were taking place
along the inland waterways during New York’s first era of navi¬
gation improvement - nearly a quarter century before a single
shovelful of earth was turned for the Erie Canal.

Philip Lord, Jr.

Albany, New York

November 2002

Introduction

Two hundred years ago, a pioneer migrating west, newly
arrived in Albany and hungry for land, an Albany merchant
anxious to ship merchandise to the expanding western set¬
tlements, or a military commander supplying essential provisions
to the garrisons along our western frontier, faced an inadequate
and severely restricted transportation network.

One first had to hire a wagon in Albany for overland
transport across 16 miles of pine barrens to Schenectady, on the
Mohawk River. Here, at the old harbor, one would buy or hire a
small batteau - the pick-up truck of the 1 8th century - to navigate
up 58 miles of the Mohawk to the portage at Little Falls. This pas¬
sage would require the boatmen to force their batteau over 57
rapids or “rifts”, some of them with only inches of water.

At Little Falls teamsters were paid to cart the cargo, and
the boat, a mile overland to the top of the falls, where the craft
would be relaunched and loaded to traverse the upper Mohawk to
Fort Stanwix at Rome, some 38 miles and 22 rapids further west.

At Stanwix the Mohawk turned north and could no
longer serve a westward course. Here boat and baggage would
again be lifted from the river and dragged across a two mile
portage to be deposited into the almost waterless channel of Wood
Creek; a tiny stream running west from Rome, and narrow enough
here to jump across. Unable to move their craft, boatmen would
walk upstream to negotiate with the miller, who had impounded
the waters of Wood Creek in a pond. A release of water from his
dam would, with luck, carry the batteau the five miles down to the
junction of Canada Creek. From here, with the influx of addition¬
al water, one could navigate the remaining 18 miles to Oneida
Lake, following a log-choked, shallow stream at times so twisting
one could pole a boat a mile by water to advance 30 feet by
land. Once in Oneida Lake, small boats could travel by water to
Seneca Lake or to the Great Lakes via Oswego with only mod¬
erate difficulty.

This tortuous route was the only functional American
highway west to the Great Lakes in the late-eighteenth century.
And it was the improvement of this water route from Schenectady
to Oneida Lake that was the mission of the Western Inland Lock
Navigation Company, a private canal enterprise created in 1792.

Just over a decade later, in 1803, this company had real¬
ized a considerable measure of success. One could now depart the
Schenectady harbor in a Durham Boat, twice the size of a batteau
and able to carry 7 times the cargo - the 18-wheeler of the river
boat era. Too large and heavy to lift out of the water for portaging,
these craft depended on a continuous and relatively deep channel
to navigate successfully.

The voyager leaving the harbor at Schenectady in 1803
more easily passed the 57 rapids of the lower Mohawk, some hav¬
ing been deepened by the navigation company with plowed out
channels or long V-shaped rock dams. The portage at Little Falls
was replaced in 1795 by a mile long canal, equipped with 5 wood¬
en locks; rebuilt with stone in 1803.

A short distance westward, near Herkimer, two rapids
that had become troublesome for these larger boats were bypassed
in 1798 by a mile long canal, the first to use stone masonry in its
locks. And at Rome, the head of Mohawk navigation, a canal was
built in 1797 to bypass the two mile portage at Fort Stanwix. After
passage through the Rome canal, a Durham boat could smoothly
enter Wood Creek where four timber locks, built in 1802 and
1803, raised the normally shallow stream into a series of naviga¬
ble pools. Passing down the twisting channel of Wood Creek, a
Durham boat would take advantage of 13 short canals cut across
necks of land in 1793, some of the oldest artificial waterways in
North America, which shortened the passage to Oneida Lake by
six miles.

These improvements to the inland waterways stand as
evidence of the dramatic and unprecedented accomplishments of
the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. Just eleven years
after it was chartered, and fifteen years before construction of the
Erie Canal was begun, this company had converted an obstructed
and interrupted navigation good only for small, portable batteaux,
into a continuous, deepwater channel through which large
Durham boats could pass unimpeded, and did so at a time when
American canal engineering was still experimental. Had these
improvements, which included our first canals, not been in
place by 1803, our history as a State and Nation might have
played very differently.

1

The 1793 French Journal

The extracts from this manuscript account included in the following narra¬
tive, when taken together, are the complete text of the journal from October 2nd to
November 9th, except for the ten days spent exploring lands beyond Oswego.

All extracts from this journal, and only those extracts from this journal, are
given in bold italics without other citation.

Protocol for Transcription of Primary Text

Many extracts from manuscript eyewitness accounts have been included in this presentation, not the least being
the French narrative of 1793 on which it is based. While extremely rich in descriptive information, these primary source
texts often contain archaic patterns of spelling and punctuation. Although typical of the style of expression of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, these idiosyncrasies frequently obscure meaning and distract the reader.

Since it is the information these texts contain that is critical to understanding the past preserved in the observa¬
tions, a fairly standard editorial method has been applied to this variety of materials to make them as directly readable as
they would be had they been written by modem authors undergoing the same experiences. This editing has been care¬
fully undertaken to produce clarity of meaning without otherwise disturbing the original text. Punctuation, capitalization,
abbreviation, paragraphing, and spelling have been regularized and corrected without comment.

In most cases the original spelling of place names, the names of people, or other titles and labels used by the
authors provides some additional historical insight or regional flavor and has not been changed, even when the correct
identification has been known with certainty. Unreadable portions of quoted text have been indicated within brackets.
Where materials missing or inadvertently omitted by the manuscript author need to be inserted to provide meaning to the
extract, this has been done within brackets in a contrasting type face. Quotation marks and other editorial indicators have
been inserted by the author.

Note: Source references following extracts indicate the date of the observation being recorded, not the date of the man¬
uscript or publication.

2

CHAPTER ONE

The Embarkation

3

On October 1st, 1793, three French adventurers, newly
arrived at the quay in Albany, turned their gaze westward.
Simon Desjardins, Pierre Pharoux, and Marc Brunei were
about to embark on an inland voyage; a journey of forty days and
nights to the eastern margins of Lake Ontario, and back again.

Their expedition would carry them along an ancient water
route, followed for decades by explorers, missionaries, mer¬
chants, and soldiers; and by Native Americans for centuries
before that.

October 2nd. Left Albany in the afternoon with M.
Brunei in a four wheeled chariot called a wagon, and
drawn by two horses. We observed how poorly the woods
were cleared. They extract no part of the resin from the
trees. We saw that a great part of the forest had been
burnt over, from want of caution. Here and there, in
spots, there were some few flats of good quality, with
springs along the banks, near which were some log hous¬
es and all of them with signs! For, to escape the expense
of hospitality, every good American puts a tavern sign
on his door, if located on the public road; and in these
inns we sometimes can find neither bread, nor meat, nor
a bed.

The 16 mile passage through sand dunes and scrub pine veg¬
etation that all westward bound travelers had to endure on leaving
Albany was necessitated by the Great Cohoes Falls of the
Mohawk, which prevented direct navigation through the Hudson-
Mohawk junction above Albany.

One observer, passing along this portage-way through the
pine barrens two years earlier, expressed the opinion held
by many:

Traversed a pine barren, sixteen miles, to
Schenectady; a considerable town, on the south side of the
Mohawk river. Considering Albany as the northern capital
of this state, and Schenectady at least the fourth town in
rank, as to age and size - and that this road has been the
only channel of communication between these two places,
for about one hundred and seventy years, its present
shameful state is a matter of regret and astonishment; -
apparently following the direction of original Indian foot¬
paths, whereas the nature of the ground will admit of a spa¬
cious turnpike road...

Elkanah Watson , 1 79 1 2

The poor quality of the land discouraged farming in the “Pine
Bush”, but a handful of houses had sprung up along the old
“King’s Road” by the 1790s. The observation by the French party
that many hung out tavern signs to avoid having to provide free
hospitality to travelers, which was the custom, is confirmed by
another traveler in May of the same year:

We got into a wagon, and rode sixteen miles to
Schenectady, situated near the Mohawk River. We passed
about ten houses on the road, each a tavern, the land very
poor and covered with pines, the whole of the way.

Jacob Lindley, 17933

By evening, the party drew in sight of Schenectady, having
crossed between the Hudson and the Mohawk watersheds.
Schenectady’s position on the Mohawk, and its natural harbor in
the mouth of the Binnekill, had made it a favored embarkation
point since before the French and Indian War. Now, in the early
1790s, its role as a major inland port was about to emerge:

This village is not a very sightly place either from a
distance or when you are in it. The principal business is
boat-building, for which there is a great call by reason of
the continual increase of transportation on the Mohawk
River for one hundred miles.

Jeremy Belknap, 17964

“I found this village of much more importance than I expected.
It stands on the bank of the Mohawk river, about sixteen miles
from the city of Albany. It is approached from high lands, from
which you have a pretty view of the town, and a most pleasing
one of a fine body of meadows, rich interval. The high lands are
but indifferent. The rich meadows, with the advantages of the
Indian trade, were the enticements which led people to make an
early establishment here. It was originally a Dutch settlement;
and the inhabitants are principally descendants from the first
settlers, and retain their manners and language, though all of
them speak English also. The town, in which are three places of
public worship, is prettily laid out. There are three very hand¬
some streets running parallel with the river, and a number of
streets crossing those at right angles. There are in the compact
part of the town about three hundred dwelling-houses, built
mostly after the Dutch form.”

Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1793s

It was here, at the gateway to the inland waterways, that the
expedition had come to begin their westward navigation.

At night, arrived at Schenectady and lodged at the
city tavern in the garret, in beds with dirty sheets; since
they only put on clean ones every Sunday. For supper
and lodging, the price was nine shillings nine pence for
the three. We bought of Mr. Murdock some provisions for
the journey as we were not to find our outfit till we
reached the Little Falls.

Although called the “city tavern” in their journal, the inn
where the three men lodged was probably John Hudson’s
Schenectady Coffee House, as they identify the proprietor on their
return visit as “Mr. Hudson.” The association of Schenectady tav¬
ern keepers with stage wagon service to and from Albany, begun
this very year, is well documented:

Probably the first regular stage line started by a
Schenectadian was run by Moses Beal in May, 1793. It ran
from Albany to Schenectady, Johnstown and Canajoharie
once a week. The fare was three cents a mile. The success
of this enterprise was so great that John Hudson, keeping
the Schenectady Coffee House, on the southwest comer of
Union and Ferry Streets, now the property of Madison
Vedder, Esq., soon afterward established a line of stages to
run from Albany to Schenectady three times a week.

Howell & Munsell, 18866

4

Albany

In 1793, the river port of Albany was already
almost 150 years old. Established as a center for
inland trade, it was the northernmost point on the
Hudson River reached by most travelers heading
west. Here initial arrangements could be made for an
inland navigation that would begin in Schenectady,
some sixteen miles to the west:

“I spent the remainder of the day in making
some arrangements with General Schuyler
respecting boats, boatmen, &c. and in viewing
the city of Albany. It is built on the banks of the
The City of Albany, 1794. Hudson. There are three streets running parallel

with the river, about half a mile in length; the
one called Market is well paved, and thereon are
many valuable houses, built on the English mode; but a great proportion of the others are of the
ancient Dutch form, with the ends at the street. There are many streets running from the river up and
intersect the others nearly at right angles. There are five or six hundred houses in the city, the founda¬
tion of which was laid before New York was built. The people were led thus far into the country from
the allurements of the Indian trade, which at that day was very important.

“The original settlers were from Holland. They have retained their ancient manners and language,
and have so much secluded themselves from the world at large, that their reservedness has the
appearance of a want of hospitality. There are four places of public worship, the Dutch church, the
Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, and the Methodist. It is a place of considerable business, and I think,
by opening the canals and a communication by water with the different parts of the country, it will
soon be much more important.”

Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 17937

European travelers frequently expressed mixed feelings about the city they encountered, as they began their tour
of the interior. While often dismayed at the accommodations, they were pleasantly impressed with the populace:

“We arrived in Albany, a town already large and well populated, which is situated at the conflu¬
ence of the Mohawk and the Hudson. Placed as it is 170 miles in the interior it does not have a mar¬
itime trade, but it is the commercial center for all the merchandise which comes there from an
immense expanse of country, as much by the boats of the Mohawk as by wagons from the Genesee
and other regions.

“We stayed at the Tontine Coffee House, an inn setting a good table but with bad service and
the house scarcely clean. We found there fourteen people eating at the common table, a great advan¬
tage for the traveler, who in short time can thereby acquire information on the locale which he would
not otherwise be able to obtain. These gentlemen were polite without affectation, communicative
without garrulity. They had that appearance of ease that one finds in Europe only in the upper classes.
Here is the fruit of a liberty which they enjoy from infancy and of that spirit of independence which
produces hard work and industry; architects of their own fortune they owe nothing to anyone; they
believe themselves equal to everybody.”

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, 1805s

5

The Kings Road

A map showing the King’s Road, c.1757.

The “King’s Road” followed what may have
been an Indian trail through the sixteen miles
of pine barrens that separated the Hudson River
harbor at Albany from the Mohawk River port in
Schenectady. Direct navigation from one to the other
was blocked by the “Great Falls” at Cohoes, which
presented an insurmountable obstacle even for portag¬
ing of light craft.

Although often termed a “highway,” this prima¬
ry land link to the western waterways was little more
than a dirt track, which wound its way between sandy
dunes and marshes. The climax forests which covered
the “Pine Bush” survived conditions that were less
than hospitable for agriculture.

It was the use of this thoroughfare for commer¬
cial traffic and emigration that supplied a minimal
economy along the route, which flourished until a
straight-line turnpike was completed between the two
villages on an alignment to the north [Route 5] .

The “burnt over” condition observed by the
French party in 1793 was typical of newly settled
areas further west:

“It is true that in many places steel and fire have
already waged mortal combat with these ancient
forests. Without doubt the trees must go in order to
have cultivated ground but, in getting rid of them one
should recover some profit from them. But here it is a
sorry sight, to see for mile after mile these enormous
skeletons, these gigantic cadavers, shorn of their bark
and half-burnt lying about wasted.”

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, 18059

But these sandy pine barrens west of Albany
actually depended on the impact of fire to sustain their
peculiar ecology, and the devastation observed here may
well have resulted from natural wild fires.

The concept of a Mohawk Valley stage may have more
romance attached to it in retrospect than it did to those who actu¬
ally took advantage of the service:

A typical stage coach of the late 1 8th Century.

On leaving Schenectady, the first day’s ride warned
me of what might be expected on the succeeding ones. The
weather was broken, the roads rough and deep, the stage
waggon crowded with passengers and luggage, and the
party but very moderately agreeable.

The stage waggon which is still used in this part of
the country, corresponds exactly with the picture and
description which Weld has given. The body is rather long
in proportion to its breadth, and contains four seats, each
holding three passengers who all sit with their faces
towards the horses. From the height of the seats it is open
all round, and the roof is supported by slender shafts rising
up at the comers and sides; in wet weather a leathern apron
is let down at the sides and back, to protect the inmates.
The waggon has no door, but the passengers get in by the
front, stepping over the seats as they go backward; the dri¬
ver sits on the front seat with a passenger on either hand.
The heavier kinds of boxes and trunks are fastened behind,
upon the frame of the carriage, but the smaller articles and
the mail bag are huddled under the seats in the inside, to
the great annoyance of the passengers, who are frequently
forced to sit with their knees up to their mouths, or with
their feet insinuated between two trunks, where they are
most lovingly compressed whenever the vehicle makes a
lurch into a rut. The body of the waggon is suspended
upon two stout leathern straps, passing lengthways under
it, and secured upon strongly propped horizontal bars
before and behind.

John M. Duncan, 181810

In the morning, with final arrangements made, the trio set out
from the harbor to begin their voyage up the Mohawk.

October 3rd. Started from Schenectady at half past eleven
in the morning, in a bateau which Mr. DeZeng had
bought for us for ten dollars. It was fifteen feet long by
four wide in the middle, and both ends were pointed. Only

6

Map showing John Sanders’ house in 1803.

two boatmen were needed to take us up to the Little Falls,
as we were only half loaded. They labored alternately at
the oars, paddles, and setting poles. We embarked only
our biscuit, rum, and baggage, as we were to obtain the
rest at the house of Mr. DeZeng.

M. Brunei, in true sailor fashion, protested that we
had taken on board no fresh water, but we replied that, in
case of need, we would supply ourselves from the rivers
and the lakes.

Above Schenectady the river forms several islands,
which present an agreeable prospect and are very pleas¬
antly overlooked by the mansion of Mr. John
Saunderson.

The mansion noted by the travelers was the grand house of
John Sanders, which stood on the north bank of the river opposite
the harbor.

Schenectady

By 1793, the harbor in Schenectady already
had a significant place in the history of
inland navigation. Site of the construction
and staging of hundreds of batteaux attached to
military expeditions during both the French and
Indian War [1755-1761] and the Revolution [1776-
1783], this harbor was also the terminal for all
commercial transport westward during the eigh¬
teenth century.

Forwarders and merchants, as well as military
commanders, forced by the Cohoes Falls to go
overland from Albany, found here an ideal harbor.

The Binnekill, a branch of the Mohawk River that
detached itself a couple miles upriver to the west,
ran up alongside the old Stockade section of the

city just before reentering the main channel. It was
, • , -.i. , , , , , The area around Schenectady in the 18th Century,

here, in this sluggish, slack- water channel, protect- J J

ed from ice and the force of the main current, that the harbor developed.

Shipping facilities were present here since the first boats ventured westward, and boatbuilding followed as a natural
consequence, with boatyards spread along the river bank from the Binnekill to Front Street. But not until 1797, when the
efforts of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company opened up the Mohawk/Oneida route to the larger batteaux and
Durham boats, did the port at Schenectady undergo significant growth. Soon after, large warehouses were raised along
the margins of the Binnekill, often operated by firms which owned comparable facilities at the other end of the naviga¬
tion; be it Utica, Rome, or Oswego.

The demand for passenger service increased as well, as settlement expanded to the west after 1800. Larger boats,
which depended on the continuous channel created by Gen. Schuyler’s navigation company, now entered the system.
Their increased carrying capacity required larger warehousing facilities and stimulated wagon transport between the
waterfronts at Schenectady and Albany.

7

CHAPTER TWO

The Lower Mohawk

In the early 1790s, virtually everyone who departed the harbor
at Schenectady did so in a batteau that they had hired, or pur¬
chased, at the waterfront. These flat-bottomed, shallow-draft
boats averaged 30 feet in length, six in width, and carried a crew
of three, as observed in 1791 :

Each boat was manned by three men, two in the bow
and one in the stern, to steer. They rowed in still water,
setting with short poles at the rapids, with surprising dex¬
terity.

Elkanah Watson, 1791 11

Such light craft were demanded by the many shallows, or
“rifts”, in the Mohawk, as well as the several portages that pre¬
vented continuous navigation.

We observed that the Mohawk, although of fine
breadth, is shallow, and that at this season its usual depth
is only three feet, but varying from one foot to five or six
in the narrower places. At about one mile we met the first
rapid, formed by two currents that meet at the lower point
of an island, where it is made apparent by the gravel
which bars the river.

As we were getting over this obstacle by means of
poles, with spikes at the bottom, to hold against the cur¬
rent, and to advance up through the rapid, we found our¬
selves upon a plane higher than the rest of the water to the
right, the left, and below us. It presented a novel and pic¬
turesque spectacle. The pebbles at this rapid were flat and
rounded, and their material a brownish quartz streaked
with grey and white.

ered with woods. Generally these flats have but little
breadth. They have preserved the large trees along the
banks, to defend against the ice, the timber, and the rocks,
which the Mohawk brings down in its freshets. The lands
are very well cultivated.

We continued from this time forward to meet, at
almost every mile, little rapids until we came to the farm
of Nicholas Filet, who was originally from France. We
went ashore to call at his house. At this place we saw a
wagon cross the river at one of the rapids, the water being
there always shallower than in other places.

As the Mohawk was obstructed by over 90 rifts or rapids
between the harbor at Schenectady and the head of navigation at
Fort Stanwix [Rome], and since many of these rifts were only a
couple of feet deep in the summer, there were numerous places
where wagons, horses, and even pedestrians could cross the river
with ease.

We observed everywhere along the banks, pebbles of
quartz and other ferrugerous rocks, with some of marble
and others of gypsum. Not far from this, we observed slat¬
ed rocks.

At two o’clock we left Filet’s house. We noticed that
from this place the bottom lands were wider and located
alternately upon one and the other side of the river, form¬
ing well improved farms. At four o’clock we landed to rest
our boatmen, who had within the distance of a mile sur¬
mounted six rapids.

At this place, we had an opportunity to observe the
excellence of these bottom lands.

The rapid which so impressed the Frenchmen was undoubted¬
ly the one known locally as the “Knock ‘em Stiff’ rift. The fol¬
lowing year another party had a less enjoyable passage up through
this obstacle:

So we tarried a week, and provided ourselves with a
boat. Two men had engaged to go with us and work their
passage up the Mohawk.... When we came to the first
rapids, which by the Dutch people are called “knock ‘em
stiff,” we had our difficulties. I had never used the setting
pole in my life, and my colleague was not a very good
waterman. When we almost ascended the rapids, the boat
turned round and down the stream she went much more
rapidly than she went up. We tried again, and when we had
almost conquered the difficulty the boat turned again. I then
jumped overboard, thinking to save the boat from going
down the stream. But the water was over my head. So away
went the boat with my companions in it, and I swam to
shore.

Rev. Elijah Woolsey, 179412

But the French expedition successfully mounted the rapids and
continued on their way.

The banks of the river are adorned with fine farms,
upon low and fertile ground called “ bottom lands.” At a
short distance beyond, the surface rises to rocky cliffs cov-

The farm buildings where we landed were well built
and beautifully located, and near by was a little tannery,
proving the industry of its owner. A plow, much resem¬
bling that of Normandy, was drawn by three horses and
guided by one man. The soil, beautifully sown, was of the
richest mould and very deep. Upon the bank, which was
adorned with fine trees in excellent preservation, we found
some superb Capillaire, already tinted by the autumn
frosts. The inhabitants call it Maiden’s Hair, and drink an
infusion of it in the place of tea.

We observed upon many of the golden rods, an insect
gall of very considerable size, as compared with the plant.
These galls were as large as pigeon’s eggs, and were of a
violet color, contrasting beautifully with the delicate green
of the plant, and the golden yellow of it’s blossoms. So far
from injuring its growth, we saw several flowers coming
directly out of the galls.

10

Traveling through the region in Autumn, these French voy¬
agers observed the farmers of the Mohawk Valley in activities that
often escaped the observation of others.

At a very fine farm two miles beyond, we saw them
boiling cider in large kettles. After reducing it one half in
volume over the fire, they mix with it barley, sassafras,
spruce boughs and some other ingredients, of which we
are not informed. This cider, which we drank in a silver
goblet holding at least a pint, was very pleasant. As
strangers, they made us pay sixpence a quart, while our
boatmen, as Americans, were charged only threepence.

Their cider without this preparation would not keep,
as it is made of good eating apples, of the kind we call in
France fruit a Couteau. They are not acquainted here
with our varieties of sweet-sour apples, of which we make
such excellent cider in lower Normandy. The addition of
spruce and sassafras corrects the acidity of the apples, of
which it is chiefly made, and they might employ a similar
method in the provinces of France, where, from want of
the proper fruits, they make very poor cider, which quick¬
ly sours, and the use of which as a drink is sure to disor¬
der the health instead of proving salutary.

Most of the inhabitants above Schenectady thus far
are of Holland origin, and they take great pains to inform
you that they are Dutch, and not English.

We re-embarked at half past five, and after having
surmounted, but not without difficulty, two other rapids,
we stopped twelve miles from Schenectady at the house of
Ysayos Swart. It was now eight o’clock in the evening,
and we had much difficulty in landing there on account
of the gravel which barred the river, and which the dark¬
ness did not allow us to observe.

This first day of navigation was the precursor of those to fol¬
low, and typical of boating on the Mohawk from the earliest
period:

The trade with the Indians along the Great Lakes and
the St. Lawrence was carried on by the aid of boats pro¬
pelled from Schenectada up the Mohawk at great personal
labor, in consequence of there being several rifts or rapids
in the stream. The first obstruction of the kind was met
with six miles above Schenectada, and was called Six
Flats’ rift; proceeding west came in course similar obstruc¬
tions known as Fort Hunter rift; Caughnawaga rift;
Keator’s rift, at Spraker’s, the greatest on the river, having
a fall of ten feet; Brandywine rift, at Canajoharie, short but
rapid; Ehle’s rift near Fort Plain; Kneiskem’s rift, a small
rapid near the upper Indian castle, a little above the river
dam; and the Little falls, so named as compared with the
Cahoes on the same stream near its mouth.

Jeptha Simms, 1845 13

Even a decade later, when larger river craft manned by crews
of five or six polemen plied these same waters, the river still made
progress difficult:

Several boats usually went in company, that the unit¬

ed strength of many men might aid in the labor before
them. Those boats were often half a day in proceeding only
a few rods, and not infrequently were they, after remaining
nearly stationary on a rapid for an hour, compelled to drop
below the rift and get a new start. Twenty hands, at times,
were insufficient to propel a single boat over Keator’s rift.
Black slaves, owned by settlers in the neighborhood of
rapids, both male and female, were often seen assisting
at the ropes on shore, when loaded boats were ascending
the river.

Jeptha Simms, 1882lif

Also typical of river travel in this period was the extreme vari¬
ability of hospitality available on shore, even from those houses
purported to be taverns.

Fortunately, we had taken care upon leaving
Albany to supply ourselves each with a mattress and a
pair of blankets. These we spread before the fire in the
only room of our tavern. Without this precaution, a trav¬
eler runs the risk of sleeping on the bare floor almost
every night. As for the rest, these honest descendants of
Holland stock, who kept this house, asked us only six¬
pence a head for the part of our supper and bed which
they furnished us.

The second day on the river brought little improvement in
their circumstance. But it did provide the opportunity to observe,
and record, some of the details of the natural environment that
makes this journal so exceptional. This penchant for the examina¬
tion of a broad spectrum of the reality around them was typically
exhibited by gentlemen of the Enlightenment, such as these.

October 4th. Set out at seven o’clock in the morning.
After passing several rapids, we were obliged, in order to
rest the boatmen, notwithstanding the rain, to go ashore
and walk with much difficulty along the beach upon the
gravel, about a mile. These pebbles were for the most part
granite and marble.

There were also other kinds of rock; one a very fine
granite, striped green, white, and grey. These rapids are
occasioned by the current in narrow places between the
islands of rock and soil, which its channels form in the
Mohawk when the snows melt and go off in the spring.

The explorers had never before experienced the mechanics of
the Mohawk River. But by the time of their next voyage upstream
the following summer, they had correctly ascertained the cause of
the very rifts they were contending with:

I observed along our route, that the rapids were all
formed at the mouths of creeks, by the stones and gravel,
which these streams when swollen and overflowed by the
melting of the snows, sweep into the river, where they pile
up and form bars. These can not be carried away by the
main current of the river, since, as the water subsides, the
force of the current is lessened, and soon ceases to move
these materials further. The formation of islands is due to
the same cause. They begin by rapids, which bring down

11

new deposits of rocks, gravel and sand each year, which
gradually heap up to the level of low water, and finally of
high water, when plants and aquatic shrubs find root and
grow. These form a lodgement for mud and sand, which
every freshet brings down, and for these reasons we always
find islands at the foot of the rapids of rivers, and below the
mouths of creeks. The rapids and islands are always pro¬
portioned to the force and volume of the confluent waters.

Simon Desjardins, 179415

Later that morning, the batteau passed by one of the more
interesting landmarks on the lower Mohawk, known generally in
later years as the “Painted Rocks”.

At nine o’clock we observed on the right a long
bank of calcareous rock almost perpendicular, like the
walls of a fortress, and in large courses perfectly level.
Our boatmen insisted, according to their traditions, that
some of these walls were built by the Spaniards more
than two hundred years ago.

This popular error originated in the striking resem¬
blance of this precipice to a wall of cut stone. Some lime
kilns which we saw a little further beyond convinced us
still more of the character of this rock.

The lime kilns seen by the travelers appear on a map of the
river drawn in 1 803 and stood on the western edge of what is now
the City of Amsterdam, along the north shore.

showing lime kilns west of the settlement.

It was on the same shore, just east of the city, that the lime¬
stone escarpment cited in the journal, itself a noteworthy feature

of the riverside terrain, was observed. Although the Frenchmen
made no mention of seeing images on these rocks, another, pass¬
ing by a few months earlier, describes them:

This day we passed a rock projecting out of the bank
of the river, whereon was painted, with great ingenuity, in
red colours, a canoe with the representation of seven men
in it, which is said to be done annually by Indians, coming
several hundred miles for that purpose, in order to com¬
memorate the slaughter of seven Indians, who went off
from that neighborhood in some former wars, and were all
destroyed.

Jacob Lindley, 179316

As late as 1810, when DeWitt Clinton journeyed along this
waterway and recorded his observations, the images were still
visible:

About sixteen miles from Schenectady, we saw, on
the left bank of the river, a curious specimen of Indian
painting. On an elevated rock was painted a canoe, with
seven warriors in it, to signify that they were proceeding on
a war expedition. This was executed with red ochre, and
has been there for upwards of half a century.

DeWitt Clinton, 181017

Paintings of this type on rock were no doubt frequently made
by Native Americans since prehistoric times, but few could sur¬
vive more than a few years before they weathered away. Some
claimed the figures were “retouched,” which prolonged their life.
Others suggested a connection between these paintings and the
river boat traffic of the 1790s and early 1800s:

The Flat boatmen of the Mohawk held these rocks in
such reverence that they at times refreshed the paintings.

LaGrand Strang, 1887 18

That the images recalled so clearly in the early nineteenth cen¬
tury were the product of various acts of “refreshing” is suggested
by the account of a visit to the site in 1796:

Stopped by the way at Miles’s (formerly Guy
Johnson’s house); there met a Dr. Sweet, who fell into con¬
versation, and offered to conduct us to the painted rock,
which he said was about two miles down the river. Took
him up in the carriage and rode with him two miles. Then
he and I left the carriage to search for the rock. This ram¬
ble took up forty minutes, and I walked about two miles,
partly through woods and partly through fields.

The rock is on the north bank of the Mohawk, fifteen
miles above Skenectada. It is a perpendicular ledge of
limestone, with a pretty smooth surface and about twenty
feet high. On the upper part - which is easily accessible, the
laminae projecting in various places - appear the remains
of some red paint, which has been in the same situation for
eighteen or twenty years. Imagination may conceive the
paint to resemble almost any thing; but judgement cannot
decide without the help of testimony.

The tradition is that it was painted by the Indians in

12

“Painted Rocks”

Rufus Grider’s view of the Painted Rocks, from eyewitness accounts.

The drawings above, created one hundred years ago by Rufus Grider, have preserved for us an image of what the
Native American pictograph known as “Painted Rocks” must have looked like to passing boatmen. He based his
reconstruction on eyewitness interviews. At that time a number of persons could still recall the site in detail, and
related to him their recollections:

“Within the remembrance, possibly of some person still living, there was a large rock on the north shore
of the Mohawk, near Amsterdam, to be seen at low watermark, that contained Indian Memorials, such as the
figures of men and animals, and supposed by some to have been traced with red chalk, although they may have
been in vermilion, which the Whites bartered with the Natives for peltry.”

Jeptha Simms, 188219

“The rocks contained 12 or 15 Indians, with two canoes, two Indians in each canoe, one at the bow the
other at the stem, going west, other Indians on foot. A duck flying above eastward.”

John Winnie, 188720

“I lived all my life in the vicinity of the rocks. I lived on the south bank of the river when the canal was
made. Our house was just opposite the rocks and was the first house built [in] the present Port Jackson, and
is still standing. There were figures on the rocks, at least 9 in number, they were painted with red colors. My
grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary Army. He, when passing the rocks in a boat, was shot at by an
Indian who lay in ambush and wounded him. It was covered with pines and undergrowth.”

David DeForest, 188721

“I was bom in Amsterdam in the year 1826 and lived there until I was 21 years old. I remember well the
painted rocks. I was very fond of being on the water; and before I was 14 years old I and another boy named
Abm. Pulling (now deceased) became owners of a rowboat, and in it passed many hours on the river, and
rowed past the painted rocks more times than I can remember. There were two canoes going upstream, as if
racing, with two Indians in each canoe. There were 10 or 12 Indians on the bank who were walking westward
and apparently watching the canoe race. The work was done in red paint, the figures were about 4 feet high,
and could be plainly seen from the opposite side of the river.

The pictures at that time had the appearance of being retouched, probably to perpetuate them. I think
they are now entirely obliterated. They were on the perpendicular face of the rocks which overlook the river, a
little east of the freight house and directly south of the Murphy Bros, warehouse. These tracings were of the
plainest and rudest kind.”

Moses T. Kehoo, 188722

13

memory of some canoes of Indians who went thence to
war, and never returned; that the painting represented
canoes and men in them; and that this painting is frequent¬
ly renewed to preserve the memory of the event. Some add
that the renewal is performed in the night, or by some
invisible hand. The fact is that there is a rock with some
appearance of red paint, that the paint has been in some
measure defended from the weather by a projection of the
rock over it, and that the place is easily accessible by sim¬
ilar projections under it. This is all that can be said with
any certainty.

As to the frequent renewal of the paint, &c., I was
assured by Dr. Sweet that he had known it to be in the same
condition as we saw it for eighteen years past; and a man
whom we took as a pilot, who appeared to be about twen¬
ty-five years old, said it always looked just so since his
remembrance.

Jeremy Belknap, 179623

Having noted the rock outcrop, the French party passed up to
landing in the mouth of the Chuctanunda Creek [Amsterdam].

At ten o'clock we stopped to breakfast at Isaya’s
Inn. This place is one for considerable crossing, the river
being there fordable at the head of the rapid. There the
character of the rock changes, and it becomes slaty, and
the bed of the river, instead of pebbles, shows only an
immense pavement of slate, which forms as it were large
stairways upon the banks. This place is four miles from
where we started. The right bank is the most elevated, the
soil is here composed of course slate, where the surface is
washed, and it is sometimes interrupted by fissures of
from two to twelve or fifteen inches wide, and of
unknown depth. Out of these fissures spring evergreen
trees, and oaks of surprising growth, so that the rock
itself and the waste places there appear fertile. These
woods were filled with squirrels.

Guy Park.

Reembarked at eleven o'clock and a mile beyond
came to the house of Colonel Johnson, a refugee to the
Long Saut in Canada. This house was built of stone and
is the finest we have seen since leaving Albany. It has
been mutilated through the hatred of the populace, as
have also the fine orchard and the plantations which he
formed. He was forced to abandon them, a fugitive from

the house he had built and the fields he had cleared. The
man who took from the Legislature the lease of this
house, turned it into a tavern, and lately became its owner
when it was sold, with the other confiscated property of
the Loyalists.

This house, commonly known as Guy Park, had been the
home of Sir William Johnson’s son, Guy, until the Revolution. It
was one of the most substantial houses in the valley, and is fre¬
quently noted in travelers’ journals:

...a large, well-finished stone house, which was much dam¬
aged and abused during the war.

Jeremy Belknap, 179624

Though damaged, it had fared better than most Loyalist homes
in that era. Some that survived the vindictiveness of the “Rebels”
were later lost by negligence.

Further on was a very fine house also of stone
which belonged to Mr. Claus, which was accidentally
burned six months ago. Beyond this there appeared a
charming residence built with regularity, with five win¬
dows in front and an island and creek adjacent. This
property formerly belonged to Sir William Johnson, who
also emigrated to Canada, and has been bought of the
State by one Mr. Cuyler, a wealthy citizen of Albany. The
creek drives a grain mill and saw mill near the dwelling.

Fort Johnson.

“Passed by the first seat of the late Sir William Johnson, consisting of
one large stone house and two stone stores and a stone barn, a good gar¬
den and orchard. Here Sir William first kept a trading-house and got his
estate. He afterward removed further up the river, and four miles from
the river, where he built an elegant seat, and lived in the latter part of his
life in a very genteel style, and very hospitably, keeping a number of
young Indian women about him in quality of concubines, and offering
them in that respect to gentlemen who happened to lodge at his house.
Many of his children and their descendants are now mixed with the other
Indians, and are proud of reckoning their descent from him.”

Jeremy Belknap, 179625

Beyond this place to Fort Hunter, where we arrived
at four o'clock in the evening, the land is everywhere
excellent. The location of the fort is very picturesque. The
islands, which the river continues to form, present varied
sites and superb points of view. At six o'clock we found
the river encumbered with a large quantity of rocks, scat¬
tered here and there in its channel, forming three rapids
in the course of a mile. Our boatmen had as much as they

14

could do to get up the first of these. This spectacle was
imposing to Europeans who had never before navigated
in this way, for they always choose the place where the
water is swiftest, to leap the fall, for it is there always the
deepest. And when they have got above it, you appear sus¬
pended upon precipices, and sometimes when almost
gaining the top of the rapid, a little failure to push togeth¬
er, in those who use the iron pointed poles between the
sunken rocks, will turn the bateau down the torrent, and
obliges them to begin again with all their labor lost.

This place of difficult passage, through the gravel bars and
shoals formed by the outwash of the Schoharie Creek, was sub¬
stantially improved in the following years by Philip Schuyler’s
Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, which built “wing
dams” here as part of an array of attempts to increase the naviga¬
bility of the natural channel.

In the riffs a channel was made by throwing out boul¬
ders which were in the way. In time the line of deepest
water became defined and all the riffs came to be named
and were land marks in the itineraries of travelers. The
efforts of the boatmen during a century were furthered by
the “Inland Lock and Navigation Company,” which built a
series of wing dams on all the riffs. They were usually
crude affairs and intended only to serve their office in low
water. These wing dams - collections of stone which were
dragged from the channel and arranged in the shape of a V,
the wings stretching over the shallow from the shore to the
center, where there was a narrow outlet. The effect of this
was to throw what water there was into the center of the
stream and float the boat. Then by dint of wind and muscle
- sail and poles, and men towing at a long line, the boat was
hauled over the rapid into stiller water again and so pur¬
sued her journey.

Jonathan Pearson, 188326

As innovative as these works may have seemed when com¬
pleted here in 1799, they drew criticism from those who knew the
power of the river to frustrate the efforts of boatmen:

The Canal Company have endeavored, by dams and
other expedients, to deepen the river and improve the nav¬
igation, but they have only encountered unnecessary
expense; the next freshet or rise of the river has either
swept away their erections or changed the current.

DeWitt Clinton, 181027

Having surmounted these rapids without the aid of wing dams,
and in spite of the seasonally low water they must have encoun¬
tered here, the boatmen pushed on to a landing at the end of the
second day of their voyage.

After this fatiguing passage our boatmen landed us
at the house of Mr. Venables, Esquire, a title which most
Americans take without ceremony, notwithstanding their
republicanism. This rank does not prevent him from
keeping tavern, like the rest, although he had nothing in
the house to eat, not even bread, nor milk, and he had no

The wing dams near Amsterdam, 1803

The greatest obstacle to Mohawk River navigation in
the 1790s was the shallowness of water at the many
“rifts” which existed between Schenectady and Fort
Stanwix [Rome]. One method employed by the
Western Inland Lock Navigation Company to over¬
come this problem was the construction of low rock
dams to retain and direct the water at the rifts into nar¬
row, and slightly deeper, channels. As many of the rifts
were less than two feet deep, workers could easily pile
up the rocks while standing in the river. These dams
were patterned after Indian eel weirs or fish traps that
also existed on the rivers in this period, and for genera¬
tions before

Perhaps the best eyewitness description of Mohawk
River wing dams was recorded by Christian Schultz:

“The Mohawk is by no means dangerous to
ascend, on account of the slowness of the boat’s
progress; but, as it is full of rocks, stones and shallows,
there is some risk in descending it of staving the boat;
and, at this season, is so low as to require it to be
dragged by hand over many places. The channel in
some instances is not more than eight feet in width,
which will barely permit a boat to pass by rubbing on
both sides.

“This is sometimes caused by natural or acciden¬
tal obstructions of rocks in the channel; but oftener by
artificial means. This, which at first view would appear
to be an inconvenience, is produced by two lines or
ridges of stone, generally constructed on sandy, gravel¬
ly, or stony shallows, in such a manner as to form an
acute angle were they to meet, the extremities of which
widen as they extend up the river; whilst at the lower
end there is just space enough left to admit the passage
of a boat.

“The water being thus collected at the widest part
of these ridges, and continually pent up within narrower
limits as it descends, causes a rise at the passage; so
that where the depth was no more than eight inches
before, a contrivance of this kind will raise it to twelve;
and, strange as it may appear, a boat drawing fifteen
inches will pass through it with safety and ease. The
cause is simply this; the boat, being somewhat below the
passage, is brought forward with considerable velocity,
and the moment it dashes into the passage, its resis¬
tance to the current is such as to cause a swell of four
or five inches more, which affords it an easy passage
over the shoal.”

Christian Schultz, 180728

15

beds for us to sleep on. We had recourse to our own pro¬
visions and mattresses. The house, although so poorly
furnished, was full of guests, among whom was a hand¬
some American woman who was very successfully mak¬
ing a journey on horseback from Cooperstown, and had
still eighty miles to travel, of which sixty were through the
woods.

There was also a good hearted German named
Christopher Lange, a tailor by trade, and a resident of
Fort Plain. He had a strong liking to the French, and
remembered having been well treated in Canada, where
he had learned to mangle some phrases in our language.
The impulses of this brave man, a little exalted by the
grog (a beverage composed of rum and water) which he
had taken, induced him to offer us his house and all that
he possessed, in return for which he supposed himself
entitled to partake of whatever we had. Upon retiring to
bed he accordingly edged up near us, to share little by lit¬
tle the mattress of his friend Pharoux, until he crowded
him off upon the floor.

The following year, in spite of this encounter, Desjardins and
Pharoux renewed this friendship:

...I improved this interval in enquiring after
Christopher Lange, the German tailor, our officious friend
whom we had met at Squire Venable’s. I saw him a little
afterwards, but he had no longer on his Sunday clothes,
and was carrying a sack of com to plant his little field,
which he appeared to hold only by a lease. He complained
of the high price of the lands, which he hired at twenty
shillings an acre... He asked of me for a place in
Castorland, which I promised him with pleasure when our
survey should have been completed, but which could not
occur during the coming year. In short we parted well
pleased with one another.

Simon Desjardins, 179429

The team ended their day recalling some visual impressions,
including those of a bird that was unfamiliar to them.:

Throughout its whole course, the Mohawk presents
along its banks lands of the greatest fertility. The more
distant hills are covered with wood, with places cleared,
and the beginnings of clearings.

We killed some birds with red throats, larger than a
lark, with a short beak, and mixed grey plumage. The
feathers were of fiery red under the throat and breast.
They fed upon the berries of the Philotarus.

October 5th. In the morning the venerable Esquire
demanded of us six shillings. Upon our representing to
him that he had furnished us nothing, he gravelly replied,

“ But it is to pay us for the trouble .” He deigned, howev¬
er, although with a scowl, to accept four shillings. His
ancient spouse was not of this mind, and with her pipe in
a corner of her mouth, shook her head in a manner so
expressive that M. Brunei could not keep from sketching
on the spot, the caricature which has made us more than
once remember these amiable hosts.

Breakfasted at three miles from Venables’. Our
host, surprised at seeing us make an onion soup, cried
out, “It is then indeed true that all Frenchmen are

cooks!” He furnished us tea, roast pork, eggs and maple
sugar, and charged us a shilling a head.

From Venables’ the river is free from obstruction
for six miles, ‘ till we come to a gorge in the mountain
which is named “Anthony’s Nose”. But this mountain
does not so much resemble a nose as the Anthony’s Nose
on the North River. The soil is quite fertile, and the plains
extend up into the recesses of the mountains.

We landed at the foot of Anthony’s Nose, where the
stage road has only just width enough to pass, and went
on foot to Spraker’s Ferry and Tavern, a mile beyond.

This passage through “The Noses” was as picturesque as any
on the inland waterways, and rarely missed mention:

A short distance below De Wandalaer’s, you pass a
remarkable rock called the Nose. The mountains here are
high, and are like the Highlands of the Hudson on a small
scale. The river must have burst a passage for itself. The
opening of the mountains exhibits sublime scenery.

DeWitt Clinton, 181030

The steepness of the mountains, and the narrowness of the gap
through which the river flowed, made land travel precarious:

Passed by a projection of the rocky mountain, which is
called “Anthony’s Nose.” Here the road is very narrow
between the rock and the river, and goes partly over a wharf
built with timber. The water here is said to be very deep.

Jeremy Belknap, 179631

But navigation through this passage was also full of risk, as
here existed the infamous “Keator’s Rift”, recalled by DeWitt
Clinton in 1810:

...in order to facilitate the passage of our batteaux
over Kater’s Rapid, which extends a mile from this place,
and which is among the worst in the river, we walked to the
head of it.

DeWitt Clinton, 181032

16

Keator s Rift

A map of the area by Benjamin Wright, 1811.

Just west of The Noses, outwash from the mouth of Flat Creek [Sprakers] since prehistoric times had created a low
island and shoal in the Mohawk River. The force of water passing through the constricted space and over these shal¬
lows had produced, by the eighteenth century, the most difficult, and dangerous, passage on the Mohawk navigation,
as described by Gen. Philip Schuyler during his initial survey of the river in 1792:

“On nine miles, in perfectly good water, current gentle, to the rapid commonly called Kettar’s Rapid, great
velocity of water, sufficiently deep, obstructed by large rocks, the rapid extends about one quarter of a mile.”

Philip Schuyler, 179233

Keator’s Rift witnessed its share of boating disasters, including one which has been preserved in some detail:

“[We]. .came on to what is called Caty’s rift... At this unfortunate place commenced my ill fortune. I at
first hired only two bateaumen, but previous to my leaving Schenectady I hired a third, hoping by this I had put
it out of the power of any accident to happen. The boat, being manned by three professed bateaumen and one
good hand (though not a boatman), ascended this rift to within a boat’s length of being over, when she took a
shear and fell back, and soon acquired such velocity that the resistance of the boatmen became quite inadequate
to stopping her. The consequence was, she fell crosswise of the current, and when she had descended the rapids
about half way she brought up broadside upon a rock (which lays in the middle of the stream), and sunk almost
instantly about four or five inches under.

“In this situation she lay about two hours before I could procure assistance to get her unloaded; the delay
of getting to her, together with the difficulty of coming at her cargo, made us three hours before we could
relieve the boat, during which time we expected to see her go to pieces, which would undoubtedly have hap¬
pened had she not been a new boat, and well built. It was particularly unfortunate that it was on board this boat
that I had almost all my dry goods, which got most thoroughly wet. Upon getting the boat off I found she had
two of her knees broke, and one of her planks split, and leaky in several places.

“I immediately had one-half the cargo reloaded, and set forward up the rapid, at the head of which lives
Mr. Spraker. Here I unloaded, and sent the boat back for the residue. Upon her arrival I set about opening the
goods, all of which were soaking wet. The casks I had the goods in would have turned water for a short time,
but the length of time the boat was under gave an opportunity for all the casks to fill. The three boxes of tea
were all soaked through. The difficulty of getting this article dry was heightened by the very showery weather
we had Tuesday and Wednesday; but by paying the greatest attention we were enabled to get it all dry by
Wednesday evening. The goods I had all dried and repacked; the boat I had taken out of the water and repaired;
almost everything was now ready for setting out in the morning.”

Nathan Ford, 179634

At the head of the rift, where the Mohawk divided around the small island, the Western Inland Lock Navigation
Company erected a low rock dam in the late 1790s to deflect water onto the rift, thus extending, somewhat, the
season of low- water navigation.

17

Such inconvenience, at the very least, produced delay, as the
expedition discovered.

As our boat encountered a head wind, which blew
strongly through the gorge of the mountains, we were
obliged to wait a long time. Besides this, the great depth
of water in passing the place compelled them to use the
oars alone, and, after coming through the passage, there
were three strong rapids, a little above, that must be over¬
come before reaching the ferry. We amused ourselves, in

the meantime, in carving on a face of the limestone rock
and marble, at the foot of which Spraker’s house is built.

We found there some rock crystals and enjoyed a view
between the trees of the river the plains and the moun¬
tains upon the opposite bank. At the water’s edge at the
rapids, we observed many stones sprinkled with large
flakes of gold and silver colored spangles.

Many roadside taverns, such as Spraker’s, served a dual func¬
tion if near enough to the river:

Spraker’s Tavern

Spraker’s Tavern commanded one of the premier loca¬
tions along the inland transportation route to the
West. It stood at the head of Keator’s Rift, where the
King’s Highway [State Route 5] came to within a few
yards of the north bank of the Mohawk. At this spot a rope
ferry had been established, connecting land traffic on both
sides of the river.

According to one nineteenth century writer, it was here,
as Spraker’s Tavern, that the concept of canal navigation
in New York passed its first test:

“The navigation of the interior waters of the
state had engaged the attention of General
Schuyler at a very early period. This intimate
knowledge of its hydrography revealed to him the
practicability of a system of state improvements, which should connect the lakes with the Atlantic. He even then
perceived that New York commanded the outlet to the ocean for the produce of the west and long before Dewitt
Clinton embarked his fortunes in the Erie Canal, General Schuyler had projected a more feasible plan for attaining
its proposed object. His scheme consisted of slack water navigation up the Mohawk to Wood Creek, thence to
Oneida Lake, and so through the Oswego River to Lake Ontario. But to complete this chain, a system of locks
would be necessary to overcome the descent in the Mohawk at Little Falls.

“The success of his project depending very much upon the favour with which it should meet from the
Dutch settlers on the Mohawk, he proceeded to possess them with his views. They assembled by prearrange¬
ment at Spraker’s Tavern. There the General met them and opened to them his plans. They perceived the
advantage, and were pleased with the prospect of the Mohawk’s bearing the commerce of the state past their
doors; but they could not understand how boats could ascend the Little Falls. The General explained that they
would be carried up by locks; but to no purpose. They liked the General and would take his word for anything,
but he couldn’t make them believe that water would run up hill. At this, they parted in the night - the Dutch
men to their beds, and the General, worrying over his failure, to his.

“At a thought, however, he arose, and lighting his candle, took his knife and a few shingles, and going
into the yard, dug a miniature canal of two different levels, which he connected by a lock of shingles - Then
providing himself with a pail of water, he summoned the Dutchmen from their beds, and pouring the water into
the ditch, locked a chip through from the lower to the upper level. “Veil, Veil! General,” the Dutchmen cried,

“we now understands and we all goes mit you and de canal” - The canal was dug and the locks were built -
They can be seen at Little Falls to this day - Such was the policy which afterwards shaped the Erie Canal, and
such its origins with General Schuyler.”

John Cochrane, nd35

An early view of Spraker’s Tavern.

Whether apocryphal, or anecdotal, there could have been no more appropriate place at which to speak to the
problems of surmounting the river rapids of the inland navigation with canals than here, at Spraker’s Tavern above
Keator’s Rift.

18

Along the river road near some of the rapids there
were public houses, a share of whose custom came from
boatmen. Near those inns, as possible, boats often tied up
for the night, a lot of Mohawk sailors having their own
jolly times. The late Jost Spraker’s tavern, near Keator’s
rift, was one of this class, having, among its many patrons,
not a few who came by water.

Jeptha Simms, 188236

There was perhaps no more strategically placed tavern in the
Mohawk Valley, situated as it was at the head of the most danger¬
ous rapid on the river. Here boatmen bound downriver could for¬
tify themselves for the run, and those lucky enough to make it up
through Keator’s Rift, could celebrate their success, or perhaps
recover from disaster.

The following year, Desjardins and Pharoux twice again
passed through The Noses. Their journal entries underscore the
strategic location of Spraker’s Tavern:

...at half past nine, arrived at Spraker’s Ferry, beyond
the rapids of Anthony’s Nose, which we passed very easi¬
ly, considering that it was dark. Our men united in passing
up one batteau after another. This Spraker who keeps the
tavern and ferry, made us pay four shillings for a piece of
bread, some butter and a dozen eggs. I had to pay eight
pence a quart for milk, which I found indispensable after
the fatigue of the day.

...arrived at Spraker’s tavern. For three hours the
snow had been falling so abundantly that there was now
more than two feet on shore, and it was not without diffi¬
culty that we able to get to the house, as we were moreover
benumbed with cold. We found a good fire, and what is
more rare, a good supper. This tavern is opposite Anthony’s
Nose.

Simon Desjardins, 179437

Their 1793 journal continues, as they once again reach deep
water above Keator’s Rift.

We re-entered the boat at half past one. After stop¬
ping at various places to rest our boatmen, we landed at
half past six at a farm house, where we could find only
cider and milk. They had neither meat nor beds. Before
the door was a spring, which the owner had leveled, and
which discharged at three feet from the ground by a
spout. From this house we got a view of Fort Plain and
Canajoharie, one of the most pleasant and fertile sections
of the Mohawk. Here the Schenectady Stage stops, and
they take another for Whitestown. It is called forty miles
by land from Canajoharie to Schenectady. We made
twelve miles by water this day.

October 6th. Left at half past six in the morning. Paid for
cider, milk and shelter a shilling a head. At three miles we
breakfasted at the house of a young German, upon milk-
soup, tea, eggs, and roast meat.

It being from this place only nine miles, (three long
leagues ) to the Little Falls, M. M. Pharoux and Brunei
resolved to travel this distance on foot, on the left bank as
we go up. They told them to follow the main road.

For the first six miles that they traveled, they saw
nothing but fertile lands entirely cleared. The road then
ascended into the woods, where they saw some clearings
made, and others begun, interspersed with pieces of land
still covered with woods. They then came to the finest
timber they had yet seen, ( such as oak, elm and ash) the
most of which was straight and very tall.

In a very steep hill which the road passed over, they
observed some layers of very shally slate, much broken
and cut out in forming the road.

19

CHAPTER THREE

The Little Falls

21

Passing along the high road west toward Little Falls, so
named as being the smaller version of the Great Falls at
Cohoes, Pharoux and Brunei temporarily lost their way.

They passed over two streams over which bridges
had been thrown. The first was rustic, and built of trunks
of trees, and the other was built of carpentry work.

Not being acquainted with the Little Falls road, they
followed the stage route, but after going about three
miles, they found out their mistake. They went down
towards the Mohawk, by a road through the woods made
of brush in swampy places. It led between natural rocks,
and they had upon their right a granite rock exceedingly
steep, crowned with fir trees. One of these firs, overturned
by the wind, had continued to grow upon a crag of the
rock so that its roots were flattened perpendicular to the
trunk.

They met an Indian family. The father was laden
with a pack on his shoulders and was clad in a kind of
grey waistcoat with a belt and some pieces of red stuff
that covered his legs. His two children had bows and
arrows, and his wife, who was clothed in a short frock,
carried a basket full of skins and furs.

A little beyond, M. M. Brunei and Pharoux crossed
over the bridge at the Little Falls and arrived at the house
of Major DeZeng, who, as inspector of the works on the
Canal, is lodged by the company.

In their approach to Little Falls, Pharoux and Brunei had
crossed the three most typical methods of bridging water in the
late eighteenth century frontier. The simplest was the causeway,
or “causey”, used in marshy places and seepages. It is described
in a contemporary treatise on roads:

... swampy places should be covered to a good depth
with well-bound faggots or fascines placed close together,
and that upon these a range of saplins should be laid,
touching each other, and the whole covered with earth. The
water will subside through the interstices of the wooden
materials and leave the road dry, while the floor of saplins
will prevent any depth of ruts or possibility of stalling.

Anonymous, 178738

The road “made of brush in swampy places” noted by the trav¬
elers was made on this design.

But Pharoux and Brunei also crossed two small bridges, both

no doubt thrown up by the local residents to carry the road across
narrow streams. The one described as “rustic” was probably little I
more than trunks felled across the channel, while the one “built of :
carpentry work” was made of squared timbers joined with pegs, !
perhaps of the “King Post Truss” design.

M. Desjardins, who had remained with the boat for
security of their effects, continued the route by water. At
three miles, they stopped at Hudson’s tavern - a place well
located, and the house well kept.

It is unfortunate, indeed, that all three journalists did not take
advantage of the opportunity to visit Hudson’s Tavern, as it was
one of the most interesting places, and more popular, along the
Mohawk navigation.

The following year, they did have an opportunity to revisit the
place, with the following favorable comment:

We stopped to lodge at Hudson’s Tavern six miles
from the Little Falls. It is the best on the route, and the first
place where they did not make us pay for our fire wood.

Simon Desjardins, 179439

Those remaining in the batteau continued their approach
upriver from below the Falls.

From thence, six miles to the Little Falls, there were
still some rapids near Schuyler’s Island, and the aspect of
the country was delightful, with a labyrinth of canals cut
by the river, which winds among islands blooming with
flowers and diversified by shade. The meadows are quite
broad and the soil is excellent.

Within three miles of the Little Falls, the plain
begins to narrow, until we arrive within a mile of the

The Little Falls Gorge.

22

Hudsons Tavern

Hudson’s Tavern was as well situated as it was well

thought of by early travelers. It stood on an elevation
above the river along the south bank, with a com¬
manding view of the mouth of the great East Canada Creek
opposite to the north. But it also stood on most historic
ground; the site of the Mohawk’s Upper Castle in the era of
the French and Indian War [c. 1755]. The first mention of it
can be found in General Schuyler’s accounts of expenses on
his 1792 expedition to survey the Mohawk for the Western
Inland Lock Navigation Company. However no mention of its
accommodations is given.

The first descriptive citation of Hudson’s is found in
Vanderkemp’s journal in the same year:

“After dinner I crossed the Mohawk, three miles
above Palatine-Town, & did see Canojohari ... After a
ride of seven miles farther, I tarried at a ci-devant Indian castle, now a very recommendable inn, kept by Mr.
Hudzon, to drink a dish of superior good tea.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 179240

But it was not until three years later that we have the full historical significance of the location presented to us:

“Breakfasted at Hudson’s, at the mouth of East Canada creek, - a good tavern, seated on the same ground
where Hendrick lived, the Mohawk sachem who was killed in Johnson’s battle, 1755, near Lake George.

“It is a beautiful eminence, commanding a pleasant prospect, and here are many apple-trees of at least fifty
years old, called Hendrick’s orchard. We had some of the cider, and it was excellent. Here was a fort, built by
the British troops in 1756, called ‘Fort Hendrick’, the rampart, ditch, and glacis of which are visible; and here
was found, about four years ago, a golden medal, which it is supposed was the property of some Indian chief.

It was worth about seven dollars’ had an Indian on one side and emblematic figure on the other. It was sold at
Albany to a Mr. Lansing. This place I take to have been the lower Mohawk castle, as marked on Holland’s map
of New York, though I believe that near Fort Hunter was called the lower castle seventy or eighty years ago.”

Jeremy Belknap, 179641

It was here, in the time of the French and Indian War, that the Mohawk’s had established their “Upper Castle.”
And it was on this spot, in 1755, that the British constructed their fort, described in 1757 by a French spy passing
down the valley:

“It is a square of four bastions, of upright pickets, joined together with lintels. They are fifteen feet high,
about one foot square, with port holes inserted from distance to distance, with a stage all round to fire from.

This fort is one hundred paces on each side. It is not surrounded by a ditch. There are some small pieces of
cannon at each of its bastions, and a house at each curtain to serve as a store and barrack. Five or six families
of Mohawk Indians reside outside the fort.”

Anonymous, 175742

The stone quarry indicated on Benjamin Wright’s 1803 map of the area (below) no doubt drew as much interest in
that time as did any historical association with the Mohawks, for good building stone was in great demand as Schuyler’s
engineers contemplated the reconstruction of the wooden locks at Little Falls. Years earlier the value of laminated shale
and limestone outcrops such as this was stressed in a W.I.L.N.C. report:

“The dam, guard, and river locks may be built with stone, to be obtained
on the south side of the Mohawk, at the little falls - the land carriage will not
exceed one mile, and it may then be conveyed in boats to the desired spot -
the quality is well adapted for these or other works, where strength and dura¬
tion are required - the stones rising in lamina, of different thickness - the beds
perfectly parallel, and the dimensions as large as may be required...”

William Weston, 179543

23

falls, when their vicinity is indicated by the banks becom¬
ing suddenly steep. In entering this strait in the moun¬
tains, you find yourself at once in the shadows between
two banks of perpendicular rocks, overgrown by ever¬
green trees.

This scene, perhaps the most dramatic on the voyage, never
failed to impress the traveler:

On the approach to the Falls the scenery of the coun¬
try experiences a sudden and picturesque change; the river
becomes contracted to about one-third its usual breadth; on
each side the mountains rise to a towering height, the sides
of which, although inaccessible, are covered with lofty
trees, which fasten their roots in the fissures and crevices
of the rocks, and firmly maintain their station in spite of
storms and tempests; while, as you advance, the river
seems lost in a wilderness of rocks and precipices.

Christian Schultz, 180744

The extraordinary terrain presented here by the gorge of the
river clearly made an impression on the journalists.

A little further the rocks appear broken and torn in
a thousand forms, and two little islets of rock occur in the
middle of the channel. Finally you land at the foot of the
fall, at the mouth of the projected canal. This spot pre¬
sents a scene at once grand, wild, and romantic, and it
might well nourish melancholy thoughts of ruin, chaos,
and desolation.

The water is tranquil up to the foot of the fall, which
is a succession of different rapids so that the noise is as
great as that of cascades in sheets, although you do not
hear them so far unless the wind is favorable.

“The Mohawk, after winding through a fine plain of twenty or thirty
miles extent above the falls, is all at once stopped by a vast ridge of rocks,
probably 300 feet above the level of the river below, through which, with
violent force, he breaks his way, foaming, dashing, and roaring, from one
descent to another, until finally having gained the bottom, he glides
through an immense chasm, seemingly cut out of the solid rock by art...”

Joshua Marsden, 181645

M. Desjardins caused the effects to be carried by the
boatmen to the house of Mr. DeZeng, which is half a mile
from the landing. This house, as well as most of the oth¬
ers at this place, was built at canal company’s expense.

Mr. DeZeng had been waiting for us two days. Mr.
Desjardins was quite uneasy at not finding his fellow
travelers, who had not yet arrived, and was sitting down
at the table as they came in. After resting, we caused the
bateau to be carried above the falls, by the portage which
was made on the other side.

The wagon was made with two pairs of wheels, and
wooden reach of the length of the bateau, and was drawn
by four oxen.

Our boatmen were not willing to undertake the voy¬
age of Lake Ontario, and we accordingly paid them five
shillings a day for coming and returning.

We also paid Mr. DeZeng one hundred dollars on
account of expenses of the journey. Supped and slept in
our conductor’s house.

“The people are principally English, and they seldom have preaching.
The place abounds in vice, especially profanity. Since my arrival on the
river I have heard more cursing and swearing, horrid oaths and impre¬
cations, then in ten years past. They fell chiefly from the lips of boatmen.
In some taverns were English and Dutch farmers drinking and swearing,
and the English appeared to be the most abandoned.”

Rev. Caleb Alexander, 180146

October 7th. The Little Falls derive their name from cas¬
cades formed by the Mohawk at this place. They are quite
small in comparison with the fine fall at Cohoes, down
which the river plunges a height of sixty six feet, almost
vertically, at a place twelve miles from Albany, and six
from where it joins the North river.

The Mohawk is here compressed between two rocky
mountains, through which it makes its passage, in some
places with violence, and in others broken by the rocks,
which are mostly smoothed, turned, and undermined by
the wearing of the water. These several falls and rapids,
in a length of a hundred toises, descend little by little
about forty or forty five feet.

They have thrown over these falls a framed bridge,
which is very fine and neatly built. It is made in a single
span, with bents and railing, and is supported above the
current upon rocks, which are covered by the swollen
waters of the spring floods.

They are now digging a canal, to facilitate the nav¬
igation of the Mohawk and lessen the expenses of
portage, which are now half a dollar a wagon-load which
do not average more than a thousand pounds weight. The
canal is undertaken by an incorporated company, where¬
of General Schuyler is the president, and who has given
the plan of the works. Major DeZeng being Inspector and
Storekeeper, the office is kept in his house.

This was the first of several encounters the Frenchmen
would have with the works of General Schuyler’s canal compa¬
ny under construction. Perhaps in no other location would the
potential for improvement be better seen then here at the Little
Falls, as described in the report of the Western Inland Lock
Navigation Company:

24

The falls, previous to the improvements above stated,
being impassable, even for empty water craft, these with
all their cargoes, were transported by land, over a road as
rough, rocky and as bad as the imagination can conceive;
of necessity, therefore, the boats were of such construction
as might be transported on a wheel carriage, consequently
of little burthen, seldom exceeding a ton and a half; each
boat, was navigated by three men; and a voyage from
Schenectady to fort Schuyler, a distance of one hundred
and twelve miles, and back to the former place, was seldom
made in less than nine days.

Philip Schuyler, 179847

The opening of this canal would, when completed, further
stimulate the growth of Little Falls as a commercial center, and

the operations of the canal certainly figured highly in the
development of the village during the coming years.

Yet the community was already a viable hub for inland trans¬
portation, deriving wealth from water-powered industry and sta¬
tus from its position at the river portage.

Mr. Porteus, to whom we had letters of recommen¬
dation, is at the head of the Company of proprietors of the
grant. He has built here a very fine flour mill with four
run of stones, a saw mill with two saws for making plank,
and a fulling mill, besides a store of well assorted mer¬
chandise. He carries on an extensive trade in flour, etc.

An English house, Ellis of Montreal, is of the number of
the associates.

At the Little Falls,
named in contra¬
distinction to the
“Great Falls” at Cohoes,
the Mohawk River
dropped 40 feet in less
than a mile. This rocky
passage was not naviga¬
ble, even by canoe. Thus
at a very early date,
Palatine Germans estab¬
lished a carrying service
here, assisting boatmen in
transporting boat and
baggage along a narrow
haul road that skirted the
falls on the north bank.

By the time the
French expedition of

Pharoux and Desjardins passed through Little Falls, an embryonic community had begun to form at this most strategic loca¬
tion. This settlement was catalyzed by the impending completion of the first of Philip Schuyler’s inland canals, designed to
circumvent these rapids. In fact, construction of that unprecedented artificial channel had already begun in the summer of
1793, although completion would be much delayed.

It was a year earlier, in August of 1792, that Schuyler’s expedition to survey the Mohawk by batteau for the Western
Inland Lock Navigation Company, passed this very spot, describing the work cut out for them:

“From the landing at the foot, to the landing at the head of the Falls, is about three quarters of a mile, the
height thirty-nine feet two inches, the ground stony, rocky and rough...”

Philip Schuyler, 179248

The map above is the earliest detailed image we have of the portage, before construction of the canal here changed the
landscape significantly. It was drawn during Schuyler’s 1792 expedition by Moses DeWitt, a surveyor who fell in with the
survey party at Schenectady on his way home to Onondaga [Syracuse], He was the nephew of Simeon DeWitt, the Surveyor
General of New York, who the Frenchmen would meet later on their journey. On this map one can see the portage road,
alongside which is drawn the line of the proposed canal, and, arranged along that road, the several buildings that existed then,
the core of what would become the Village of Little Falls.

A notation in the margin by Elkanah Watson, one of the survey committee accompanying Schuyler in 1792, suggests the
blasting of a dangerous rock at the lower end of the falls was the first actual work of the newly formed canal company,
although rocks in this spot continued to plague boatmen exiting the Little Falls Canal long after it was completed in 1795.

The Little Falls Portage

25

“The proprietors of this place were originally Fin and Ellis, Englishmen,
who made their fortunes in this State and returned to their native coun¬
try. The land now belongs to their heirs. They sent a clerk named John
Porteus, a Scotchman, who resided here and took care of their concerns.
He kept a store and mills. He had a daughter who is married to William
Alexander, the principal trader of this village. The lots are leased for
ever at three dollars per annum, and are 60 by 120 feet. Alexander
being the agent of the canal company, we had frequent interviews with
him, and were not a little entertained with the bathos he attempted in
his conversation.”

DeWitt Clinton 181049

As this establishment was burnt by the Indians in
the Revolution, the English associates obtained from
Parliament an indemnity so generous that they have
erected their works ten fold better than before. Mr.
Porteus, in his circumscribed sphere, following the
English maxims of monopolizing trade, will sell no land
but on the expressed conditions that there shall be built
no stores.

It is only ten months since they began to clear off
and build the canal, and they have made great progress
for so short a time. Mr. DeZeng assured us that the locks
and all the fixtures would be finished by the end of
September 1 794, and we hope he will not be disappointed.

In fact, this estimate proved optimistic, as the canal did not
open to traffic until November of 1795, over two years after this
visit and a year later then DeZeng had predicted.

Frederick Augustus, Baron de Zeng, who served informally as
the agent for this expedition, and who would accompany it west¬
ward as guide, first came to New York in 1780 with the “Hessian”
mercenary troops aiding the British during the Revolution.
Discharged in 1783, he remained in the United States, became a
citizen and was commissioned a Major in the Ulster County mili¬
tia in 1792.

Having surveyed the inland route
from Albany to the Genesee country,
Major DeZeng was chosen by
Schuyler to supervise the construction
of the Little Falls Canal in 1793. His
knowledge of the inland waterways,
and his position with the canal com¬
pany, coupled with his station at Little
Falls, recommended him to guide
this, or any, expedition to establish
Frederick DeZeng. western settlement.

Mr. DeZeng had hired for us as chief boatman a
German named Simon, at five shillings a day, and for
oarsmen, two Yankees ( New Englanders ) at four shillings
a day each. Our visit being made to Mr. Porteus, and our
goods put aboard, we set out at noon, and at two miles
beyond found other rapids. We had a very agreeable view.
This fertile country is called the German Flatts.

“German Flats have been settled by the high Dutch about seventy years.
They have been three times broken up by war. The land is excellent, both
on the meadow and hills; very extensive fields of wheat, rye, oats, flax,
and peas, but all overrun with charlock, so that they look like fields of
mustard, and, being now in bloom, are all yellow. The Germans are not
so good husbandmen as the Yankees.”

Jeremy Belknap, 179650

At five miles we observed the village, church, and
Court House, at a considerable distance. At this place the
Mohawk forms a bend and has very strong rapids, which
are difficult to pass on account of the shallow water, as
the river is here quite wide and flat. These rapids are
occasioned by the rocks and gravel which the Great
Canada Creek discharges by its two mouths into the
Mohawk. We were obliged to land and walk a mile on foot
to Fort Herkimer. Our boatmen got into the water, and
by main strength dragged the bateau over the rocks
and gravel.

“The village of German Flatts is a small place on the south side of the river
and near the toll-house. The first Indian treaty, after the peace, was made
at it. It contains a stone house which was picketed during the war and was
called Fort Herkimer. The stone church was also used as a fort during that
period, and the loop-holes for seeing through are still visible.”

DeWitt Clinton,181051

The Fort Herkimer Church.

Their passage through the region known as the German Flatts,
which may have seemed uneventful to the passengers of this small
batteau, brought them through a stretch of river channel that
would later see one of the most significant undertakings of the
Western Inland Lock Navigation Company; the building of the
1798 German Flatts Canal.

The gravel bars, islands, and shoals that lay in the river at Fort
Herkimer had been created over eons by the outwash of West
Canada Creek, often just called the “Canada Creek” and referred
to by the Frenchmen as the “Great Canada Creek”.

Such accretions in the channel produced major rifts that
obstructed passage. A measure of the need for improvement here
is the reference in the journal of having to disembark the passen¬
gers and crew of the batteau to lighten it. Even then, the boatmen,
standing in the river, had to drag it over the gravel of what was
without doubt, “Wolf Rift”.

Considering the difficulty of passing even this small batteau
over these rifts, it is not surprising that with the advent of larger
boats in the latter half of the 1790s, when the portages at Little
Falls and Rome had been by-passed with canals, a canal here
became indispensable.

But clearly these travelers, perhaps spurred on by their newly
acquired guide, Major DeZeng, were drawn to the settlement itself,
not the navigation. On foot, and relieved of the labors of moving the
batteau, the quartet enjoyed a reconnaissance of the local historic
sites, and then proceeded.

26

The German Flatts Canal

early as 1791, the rifts at German Flatts were recognized as a serious hazard in need of improvement:

“From the Little Falls, thus far, the river is nearly competent to inland navigation, with the exception of a
serious rapid, and a great bend at the Germanflats, called wolf-riff, - which must be subdued, either by a cut
across the neck of land, upwards, one mile, or by removing the obstructions.”

Elkanah Watson, 1791 52

A year later, General Schuyler seconded this concern during his batteau survey of the Mohawk:

“...a strong rapid, formerly called Orendorff’s rift, falls a foot in about eighty yards, two feet water, a fine
gravel bottom ... then arrived at the Wolf rift, extending about one half mile, bottom fine gravel, shallow, and the
channel crooked, occassioned by banks of gravel in the river...”

Philip Schuyler, 179253

Schuyler went on to suggest the solution, which was to become the German Flatts Canal:

“From the falls [Little Falls] to Fort Schuyler [Rome] the only impediments of any amount are occassioned by
the two rapids called Orendorf’s and Wolf’s rapids, these are sharp and extended, and the river here forms a circuit,
which lengthens its course beyond a straight line... It is believed that merely a cut through the chord of this circuit of
about a mile, in easy digging and of little depth, would effectually surmount these obstacles.”

Philip Schuyler, 179254

In 1795, when Schuyler’s English engineer William Weston evaluated this situation, he concurred with this suggestion:

“The best manner of improving this part will be to cut a canal from Fort Herkemer, to the deep water, below
Orendorff’s rift - the ground is very favourable, being free from rock, and with a gradual and gentle descent... the
length will be ninety two chains; and the fall of the lock at the east end ten feet, supposing the fall of the upper
gate level with the surface of the water above the Wolf rift. To obtain the requisite depth of water in the Canal, I
propose to throw a dam across the river, to raise it three feet - this will save that depth of extra digging the whole
length of the canal, and will also improve the navigation of the two small rapids above Aldridges.”

William Weston, 179555

In an historic departure from previous lock construction by the W.I.L.N.C., Weston determined to build with stone,
rather than wood or brick, and he cited the value of the laminated rock exposures along the river, similar to those noted at
Hudson’s Tavern:

“The dam, guard, and river locks may be built with stone, to be obtained on the south side of the Mohawk, at

continued on next page

27

continued from page 23

the Little Falls - the land carriage will not exceed one mile, and it may then be conveyed in boats to the desired spot
- the quality is well adapted for these or any other works, where strength and duration are required - the stones ris¬
ing in lamina, of different thickness - the beds perfectly parallel, and the dimensions as large as may be required.”

William Weston, 179556

This plan was adopted and construction was well under way here in October of 1797. During the ensuing winter, stone
and other building materials were dragged to the site on sleds, and just a year later the canal was in operation. Although of
limited scale, it was more than sufficient for even the large Durham boats of that period. The stone locks had chambers of
about 12 by 70 feet, just large enough to pass such boats, and the passage along this canal was noted by some as one of the
more pleasant experiences of the inland navigation:

“The canal here is through the Flatts, a delightful body of low lands, which look like the flats of Esopus, and
were first settled by the Palatines. The canal is 1 1/4 mile long, 24 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. The land through
which it is cut cost the company 120 dollars an acre. It is furnished with a guard lock to prevent too great a flux of
water. The embankments afford a delightful walk and the expense of cutting the canal could not exceed that of a
good turnpike. A lock here cannot, with economy, be more than 6,000 dollars. The lock was filled in five minutes
for our boat to pass. The canal here ought to have been extended further to the east, in order to have avoided
another difficult rapid, and this could have been done at a trifling expense.”

DeWitt Clinton, 181057

Meanwhile, we went to visit the forts. One was
hexagonal and the other square, and they were built of
beams laid one upon another. In the former is a twelve
pound cannon. On the first floor were embrasures for
shooting, on every side, and in the upper story, which pro¬
jected on all sides, there were loup holes.

The roof was surmounted by a lantern, which
served as look-out, and a ditch, half filled up, surround¬
ed it. The second was arranged in the same manner with¬
in. These forts were located on an eminence and served to
protect the German settlers against the Anglo-Indian
rangers in the War of Independence. We found in them,
as their sole garrison, a flock of peaceable sheep, who
had assembled there to get out of the heat - happy symbol
of the peace now enjoyed in this pleasant and fertile
country!

Above the mouth of Canada Creek, the river makes
several bends and has a number of small rapids. We

stopped to sleep at twelve miles from the Little Falls, at
the house of Mr. Dexter.

Dexter’s house stood along the north bank of the river, a few
miles above the settlement of Fort Herkimer, which the journalists
have referred to as “the village of German Flatts.” Two hundred
years ago the entire area surrounding the mouth of West Canada
Creek [Herkimer] was referred to as “German Flatts.”

“A few miles further on one finds the fertile plains called the German
Flats. It stretches out very far lengthwise but it is narrow. All that is level
presents a picture of the greatest fertility and of fine cultivation. It is
divided into large regular squares covered with corn, wheat, and all sorts
of grain and meadows, through which the river winds.”

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, 180558

28

CHAPTER FOUR

The Upper Mohawk

29

Passage above the gravelly outlet of West Canada Creek
generally marked entry into the Upper Mohawk River nav¬
igation. The river became noticeably narrower and more
meandering, the rapids more forceful and often deeper, and the
diminished size of the intersecting streams reduced the volume of
rift-creating outwash.

Most travelers’ accounts of the period contrast navigation
below German Flatts generally with that above, and particularly
with that above Old Fort Schuyler [Utica]. The Frenchmen pass¬
ing here in 1793 were no different:

Tuesday, October 8th. Left at seven o'clock. We found the
river more winding, easier to navigate, less embarrassed
with rapids and narrower. This country is beginning to be
cleared. The further we ascend, the smaller and more tor¬
tuous the Mohawk becomes.

The banks are lined with trees which lean over like
an arbor, so as to render the navigation shady and very
agreeable, and it seems like being in a garden.

The maples, ash, elms, oaks, etc., astonish you by
their height, and a European can scarcely conceive of the
majesty of these ancient trees - children of nature, which
the hand of man has never touched. But the cultivator is
little moved by these natural beauties. The fire and the
axe will soon destroy these growths of centuries.

Here we find trees girdled all around near the foot,
an easy means of destroying them; there they have
applied the fire. These immense forests are interspersed
with clearings, some finished and sown, while others are
begun and exhibiting images of destruction. The trees
felled by the axe are made into piles and left until they are
sufficiently seasoned, so that they can put in the fire, and
convert their ashes into potash.

Cutting and burning girdled trees.

Potash was usually the first product to be shipped downriver
from these new settlements; a valuable by-product of the clearing
of the forest lands for cultivation:

Having been familiar with clearing up new land from
my early childhood, let me describe the process. The
ground to be cleared being selected, the first move is to cut
all the underbrush and small trees, generally called stad-
dles. The brush are trimmed out and heaped in suitable
places, and all such small trees, as can conveniently be
handled, are cut and thrown on the heaps, with the old fall¬
en limbs of trees; the small ones being cut near the ground.

You are now ready to cut the large timber; and here
great judgement must be used in falling it, so that you can
log it to advantage. Trees should be so fallen as to be par¬
allel with each other, and if on hilly land, should be fallen
in such a manner that on logging they may be rolled down
hill. Those cut up should be in logs, fourteen or fifteen feet
long, according to their size. By skillful falling much chop¬
ping may be saved, by leaving any large trees to be piled
against, on making log heaps.

A good chopper would cut his acre and pile the brush
in seven or eight days; I have known it done in less. At the
age of twenty-two years I could cut an acre in seven days,
but as a general average men would be from seven to ten
days; particularly if several worked together. Chopping is
hard, but clean work and I was fond of it. A man going into
the woods with his axe, soon makes an opening, which
being enlarged daily, serves to encourage and stimulate
him to vigorous action.

The trees being chopped and brush piled, if done in
May or June, should be left through July and August, by
which time they become so dry, that the fire frequently
runs over the whole ground, burning all the brush, many of
the logs, and blackening those that remain. This would be
regarded as a good bum, leaving the soil clean of weeds,
and herbage. Then follows the logging and burning the log
heaps, most dirty, smoky, disagreeable work. The men and
a yoke of oxen would log an acre per day, sometimes more,
if the timber was light, and well felled and cut. The ashes,
worth 6 1/4 cents, must be scraped together, and carried to
an ashery, to make black salts, and eventually pearl or
potash. All this being done, the land was ready for harrow¬
ing and reception of seed, after which fences could be
made at pleasure.

Levi Beardsley, cl 791 59

This expedition would frequently see the burning of virgin
timber as they pushed westward, where newer settlements were
just being cut from the forest. Here, along the upper Mohawk,
expanding settlement produced a mixture of land use patterns,
often with the margins of the river left in timber.

The greater part of the clearings are not visible
from the Mohawk, because they have been made along
the great roads, that run some distance into the country.
Several masses of trees washed in by freshets, and
anchored at the bottom of the water, obstruct the naviga¬
tion in many places.

30

At half after two we passed under the bridge of Old
Fort Schuyler. This bridge is only a single span of frame
work, bent and supported in the middle by posts, but with¬
out the necessary braces and stays. It is built in the same
style as the one at Little Falls, and the bed of the river is
sand and gravel.

The expedition passed by Old Fort Schuyler [Utica] without
comment. Re-named in distinction to “Fort Schuyler” of the
1790s, which later became Rome, this community would not gain
its regional preeminence for another decade:

Utica is a flourishing village on the south side of the
Mohawk; it arrogates to itself being the capital of the
Western District. Twenty-two years ago there was but one
house; there are now three hundred...

The situation of the place is on low ground, a great
part of which is natural meadow. It derives its importance
from its situation on the Mohawk, the Seneca turnpike
which communicates with the heart of the Western country,
and the Mohawk and Schenectady turnpike, which leads to
Schenectady on the north side of the Mohawk, indepen¬
dently of a good free road on the south side.

DeWitt Clinton, 181060

In 1793 it was only the new bridge at Old Fort Schuyler, con¬
necting land traffic on the north and south shores of the Mohawk,
that was worthy of note in passing, as it had been for another trav¬
eler a few months before:

Proceeded forward, and that evening reached Fort
Schuyler, where is erected a wooden bridge, whose arch is
one hundred and twenty feet wide, without any support
from below, the butments are of framed timber without
stone in any part of them. The sweep of the arch appeared
to be about seven feet.

Jacob Lindley, 179361

This bridge, and the settlement where it stood, would receive a
bit more attention on the return trip. But on their passage upriver,
perhaps frustrated by the innumerable rifts and delays, the party
seemed concerned to push quickly on by.

We breakfasted and dined in the bateau, to econo¬
mize time, and after having made about twenty four miles
on our journey, we resolved, when night came on, to sleep
in the midst of the forest. We accordingly landed, and for
the first time pitched our tent, built afire, made our beds,
and arranged our packets so as to make convenient seats.

Having made our cooking arrangements for the
evening and morning, we partook of a frugal supper and
slept from nine till six, as sweetly as on the best beds
in Europe.

Where possible, in this period, gentlemen, women, and children
lodged at taverns along the river, while camping on the riverbank
was left to boatmen and traders. Yet at this early date, public
houses were few and far between, and often of extremely poor

quality, even for that time:

Shephard’s house is thirty-nine miles from
Schenectady, on the north side of the river, and close to
Canajoharie bridge, which passes over the Mohawk. It is a
large handsome house, dirty and un-accommodating,
although much frequented. Here is a small village of two or
three stores, two taverns, asheries for making pot and pearl
ashes, and about eight houses. We relished our breakfast
but very indifferently. The swarms of flies, which assailed
the food, were very disgusting; and custards which were
brought on the table, mal apropos exhibited the marks of
that insect as a substitute for the grating of nutmeg.

DeWitt Clinton, 181062

This same traveler, when passing up the river west of Old Fort
Schuyler, perhaps at the very spot selected by the Frenchmen,
opted also to spend his night outdoors:

We pitched our camp on the right bank of the river, in
the midst of woods. All hands fell to work, soldierlike; we
soon had a roaring fire, and our tents pitched, - open on one
side to the fire, and closed at each end with canvass. We
found an excellent substitute for feathers, by laying our
buffaloes on hemlock twigs; although the ground was
extremely moist, yet we were effectually protected from
any inconvenience. We enjoyed a pleasant night, with ten
times more comfort than we could in the miserable log huts
along the margin of the river.

Elkanah Watson, 1791 63

Having experienced woodland camping for the first time on
their journey, the members of the expedition pushed on in
the morning.

Wednesday, October 9th. Started at half past six, after
loading our baggage. The morning was very foggy. We
saw everywhere good land and superb vegetation.

31

The Frenchman were probably well advised to continue their
passage by boat, as the road west was typically poor:

The road from thence to Whitesborough, continued
as bad as possible. Broken bridges, stumps, and my horse
at every step knee deep.

Elkanah Watson, 178864

Soon the Frenchmen discovered the cause of some of the tim¬
ber that had impaired their navigation coming up to Old Fort
Schuyler the day before - often called “Wood Riffs” by the boat¬
men.

We observed that along the clearings they had felled
into the river the trees that leaned over it, to get rid of
them, which occasioned many obstructions.

This habit of farmers carelessly felling timber into the river,
in apparent disregard for the navigators who depended on the
waterway for transportation, was observed in this same spot
two years earlier:

In the afternoon we progressed thirteen miles, meet¬
ing many obstructions, in consequence of the cruel conduct
of the new settlers, (who are wonderfully increased since I
was here last,) filling the river with fallen trees, cut on its
margin, - narrowing it in many places, producing shoals
where the deepest waters had been accustomed to flow, and
impeding the progress of our boats.

Elkanah Watson, 1791 65

Three years after this passage in 1793, the Western Inland
Lock Navigation Company, and its sister company on the north¬
ern route to Lake Champlain, cited this same problem in official
reports:

Many of the settlers adjoining the waters on both
routes, through which the improvements are intended, and
by which the internal navigation, in its present imperfect
state, is carried on, have very improvidently fallen the tim¬
ber from the banks into those waters, to such an extent, as
in many places renders it difficult to obtain a passage.

Philip Schuyler, 179666

“The Neck on the Mohocks River”

By navigating up the Mohawk River above Whitestown, the French
batteau had passed, without mention or realization, through the
first “canal” ever dug in New York State, and one of the first in
the world. This cut is not mentioned in any known written records of the
period, but it does appear on several manuscript British maps of the mid¬
eighteenth century, and on several of these it is clearly labeled:

“The Neck Diged through in 1730”

Anonymous, 175667

The narrow neck of land across which this “canal” was cut had
been formed in the loop of a meander just west of the mouth of
Sauquoit Creek, in Whitestown. The narrowness of the neck, cou¬
pled perhaps with the accumulations of sand and driftwood in the
loop itself, must have attracted the interest of a batteau load of
traders or soldiers who endeavored with simple hand tools to make this
first navigation improvement on record in the Northeast.

It was just eight years earlier, in 1722, that a similar neck cut was
completed on the Mississippi River above New Orleans, although of a much grander scale:

“The Mississippi has a very winding course, and at every bend there is an eddy in the water... In the year
1722, as a party of Canadians were going down the river, they found at one place such a bend in it, that
although the distance across land, from one part of the river to the other, was not more perhaps than two hun¬
dred yards, yet by water it was no less than forty miles. The Canadians cut a trench across the land for curiosity.

The soil bordering upon the Mississippi is remarkably rich and soft, and the current being strong, the river in a
short time forced a new passage for itself, and the Canadians took their boat through it. The place is called Pointe
Coupe’e. There are many similar bends in the river at present, but none so great.”

Isaac Weld, 179768

With the new trading house at Oswego just completed, in 1727, and traffic to and from that outpost along the inland
waterways on the increase, this tiny canal may be the first tentative manifestation of the expanding pressure for naviga¬
tion improvements soon to follow. Given its situation, and the technology used in its improvement, this cut at “the Neck”
was a direct precursor to those to be excavated in the twisting channel of Wood Creek in 1793; over a half century later.

32

No solution was ever found for this problem, either in educat¬
ing the rustic population, or in devising techniques for protecting
the channel from obstruction. Sunken timber was always a threat
to inland navigation, whether created by human negligence or nat¬
ural forces.

Schuyler’s company engaged contractors, late in the 1790s,
who attempted to drag timber out of the channel with chains and
teams of oxen. Long term solution to the problem of careless
homesteaders came only when the riverside timber had all been
cut away, usually within a few years of settlement.

Within a couple miles of Old Fort Schuyler, the batteau came
in sight of Whitestown, which was the center of commerce and
settlement in this period.

At about two miles from where we started, we
passed under the bridge at Whitestown, which is finished.
This bridge is a framed structure with railing and braces
above, and vertical supports. Two bridges which serve for
farm purposes were also framed with solidity and elevat¬
ed above the highest floods.

The country on the left bank, from Fort Schuyler, is
called Whitestown, from a Mr. White who first came to
establish himself in these woods, some eight years ago.
There are now actually built some six hundred houses.

The settlement at Whitestown eclipsed Old Fort Schuyler
[Utica] until after 1800, when the completion of the Seneca
Turnpike [State Route 5] drew traffic, and commerce, to that more
easterly Mohawk landing.

“I remained one day, recruiting, at Judge White’s log-house, the founder
of this settlement, and slept in his log-barn, with horses and other ani¬
mals, some on four legs, some on two. Whitesborough is a promising new
settlement, situated on the south side of the Mohawk river, in the heart of
a fine tract of land, and just dawning from a state of nature into civiliza¬
tion. The settlement commenced only three years since. It is astonishing
what efforts are making to subdue the musky forest. Log-houses are
already thickly scattered in the midst of stumps, half burnt logs, girdled
trees, and confusion.

“I observe, however, with pleasure, their log-barns are well filled. A
few years past, these lands might have been bought for a trifle; at present,
the lands bordering the river, have risen to three dollars an acre, and few
miles back, to one dollar. Settlers are continually pouring in from the
Connecticut hive, which throws off its annual swarms of intelligent,
industrious, and enterprising settlers, the best qualified of any men in the
world, to subdue, and civilize the wilderness.”

Elkanah Watson, 178869

In spite of its size, and evidence of rapid growth, this communi¬
ty drew little notice from the passing batteau, which pushed on by.

We rested, after going about eleven miles and a half,
at the mouth of Oriskany Creek, a fine little river, where
two bateaux were lying; one bearing a New England fam¬
ily on their way to settle at Niagara, on English territory,
where, according to them, there are already some four
thousand families located; and the other occupied by a
New Jersey family on their way to Kingston, formerly
Fort Frontenac, at the entrance of the St. Lawrence,
where there are, as they assured us, still larger settle¬
ments.

The sight of Americans emigrating to English terri¬
tory appeared to us very strange. We were not less sur¬
prised to learn that, this very year, six hundred families,
each with its bateau, had taken the same route. Their
ostensible reason is that there are not enough places in
their own country, that land is there very scarce, and that
the new lands are too dear, while in Canada they are
given away grattis. Thus the very people who have, for
seven years, maintained a Civil War to escape the yoke of
England, leave their own happy and flourishing country,
to beg land at the hands of those whom they have reject¬
ed with horror, -and put themselves voluntarily under
their sway. This is a fit subject for reflection, to the pre¬
ceptors of Mankind!

Our Major DeZeng, who is not given to Philosophy,
sought to quarrel with the Jersey people, and in a men¬
acing tone, after some words, raised his axe over them.
But seeing that he scared nobody in the least, he returned
it quietly to its place.

The emigration which travelers observed along the inland
waterways during this period was in part inspired by the creation
of Upper Canada [Ontario] in 1791. Established initially as a
refuge for Loyalists from the United States, many of which had
lived in the Mohawk Valley, these vacant and inexpensive lands
drew the disillusioned from their exhausted New England farms.
With lands along the waterways within New York already taken
up, or priced too dear, families stepping into their batteaux at
Schenectady intended only on passing through to Lake Ontario.

This was a preview of the great westward migrations of the
next century, where hopes and dreams traveled in covered wagons
along the rutted trails of the Great Plains. This present migration,
of necessity, was forced into small boats on the inland waterways
by the lack of adequate roads for heavily loaded wagons and carts,
even a decade later:

We set off on our western tour, through roads as bad
as deep ruts, broken bridges, and rapid torrents could make
them ... a foot deep in mud, full of stumps of trees, inter¬
sected with streams, and these sometimes covered with rot¬
ten poles, and others not covered at all, with now and then
holes, gaps, and excavations, sufficiently large to swallow
up a horse and cart; indeed, most of the American roads are
a libel upon common sense... We had, it is true, the delight¬
ful Mohawk River on our left hand, whose banks are cov¬
ered with finely cultivated plantations, affording some
beautifully romantic landscapes.

Joshua Marsden, 181 670

The emigrants of the 1790s were very familiar with the water
route to Canada, via Oswego, and much of the early settlement of
Ontario was rooted in these crowded batteaux, navigating the
upper Mohawk westward, as observed in the preceding decade:

We met numerous bateaux coming up the river,
freighted with whole families, emigrating to the “Land of
Promise.” I was surprised at the dexterity with which they
manage the boats, poling up the river against a current at a
speed of three miles an hour.

Elkanah Watson, 178871

33

The Frontier Homestead

The image of the frontier homestead, consisting of a
crude log cabin and a few acres of cleared land, is
deeply ingrained in the stereotype of eighteenth cen¬
tury New York. It is important to recognize, however, that
regardless of the level of architecture first constructed,
each settler constantly strove to upgrade that structure,
making it larger or replacing it with one more sophisticated
or comfortable.

It was not uncommon to find a series of houses built
in succession on a homestead:

“Hitherto he has lived in a log-hut; in which he
has entertained most of the persons traveling in this
road during the last eight years. In my journey of 1803
I found Rosebrook in possession of a large, well-built
farmer’s house.”

Timothy Dwight, 180372

These cycles of replacement were repeated as each new area was opened to settlement, and sometimes as new set¬
tlers first entered areas already occupied by others. This frequently revealed a mixed pattern of architecture, with a pre¬
ponderance of the earlier log cabin styles as one went further west:

“Their dwelling-houses are principally of logs; but they are beginning to form better, and will soon be
lodged very comfortably.”

Timothy Dwight, 180373

As soon as one could, the original log cabin, often small and uncomfortable, was replaced with a log house made of
squared timbers, framed windows and doors, and a functioning fireplace and chimney:

“A log cabin... was a temporary structure built of round, unhewn logs, caulked with moss, straw or mud, hav¬
ing no windows, and a hole in the roof in lieu of a chimney. A log house... was a dwelling built of hewn logs, the
interstices stopped with stones and neatly plastered, having glass windows, a chimney, and a shingled roof.”

Thaddeus Mason Harris, 180374

Chronology was less critical than geography in determining the predominant type of house one would encounter,
and often communities to the west exhibited mostly log cabins, while those in the east had long since converted to log
frame houses:

“...the wooden house at which we stopped had reached the second stage of civilization for it was a frame
house, that is to say, a house with glazed windows.”

Madame du Pin, Massachusetts in 179475
“... a miserable log hut is the only symptom of man’s residence.”

Basil Hall, Western New York in 182776

A homestead of log structures in the late 1 8th century.

The migration of families to the west in batteaux was fre¬
quently preceded the year before by individual exploratory expe¬
ditions by land; often with an air of desperation:

...we met daily with groups of five or six men on
horse back, in search of land, with intention, if succeeding,
to move on with their families the next winter or following
spring, while every day one or other accosted us to pur¬
chase lands, of which we did not own one single inch.

Adrian Vanderkemp, 179277

Had the French party ventured up the Oriskany Creek to the
terrace above, they might have seen remnants of the Iroquois set¬
tlement that had existed there throughout the eighteenth century.
Even as late as 1788, significant Native American activity was
noted here:

At Oriskany creek, I passed a small tribe of two hun¬
dred Indians, the remnant of the once formidable Mohawk
nation, the terror and dread of the New-England frontiers.

Elkanah Watson, 178878

34

But the French party contented itself to remain in the mouth of
the creek to enjoy their breakfast.

We breakfasted on the bank with a good appetite,
upon the pork and peas cooked last evening. After reem¬
barking we found the river more and more obstructed by
drift wood. Fortunately the two bateaux left before us,
and made themselves a way, axe in hand, from which we
profited on our passage.

We were at length obliged to land to rest the boatmen,
but the bank was still more difficult than the river. We all
went into the water, and M. M. Brunei and DeZeng assist¬
ed the boatmen in drawing the bateau over the rapids,
while Pharoux and Desjardins regained the bank. But the
route in the woods was very difficult, on account of the
trees that had fallen across it, some of them half consumed
by time, and into which they sank in trying to get over
them. There were a great many plants and tall herbs,
which fettered the legs, and springs and swamps, into
which they sank very easily. But the most disagreeable
obstacle that they met was the abatis of the new clearings.
The trees fallen and pressed together, their branches inter¬
laced, and trunks piled one on another, presented a front
that it was almost impossible to scale, and these tangled

masses were sometimes one or two hundred toises wide.

To crown the whole, it was found necessary to cross
a creek. It appeared to have but little water, but M.
Pharoux, in attempting to pass it, at once sank waist deep
into the mud. If he had not luckily seized a branch of a
tree, by which he was enabled to crawl out, he would have
remained stuck in the mire, and would have sunk deeper
into the pool, before assistance could have been rendered.

M. Desjardins, who witnessed this passage, did not think
proper to follow his tracks, and called to the bateau,
which, after receiving M. Pharoux, took him up at the
mouth of the creek, not without great difficulty, but radi¬
cally cured of his curiosity for traveling in the woods
without road or paths.

Having endured the monumental exertions of navigating the
upper Mohawk channel in low water, and having witnessed first¬
hand the near impossibility of traveling overland, Pharoux and
Desjardins took refuge that evening in their riverside encampment.

At sunset we landed on the right bank, in the woods,
on a spot a little elevated, where we cooked and supped in
the most rural style. After getting dried, cleaned off and
well warmed, we retired to rest.

35

CHAPTER FIVE

The Great Carrying Place

37

hursday, October 10th. Embarked at six o’clock.
After going a mile, M. M. Pharoux and Brunei
got off to relieve the boatmen. Mr. DeZeng
assured them that the ground was better, and gave them
the directions so perfectly that after walking a mile they
found the Fort Stanwix road, and arrived there soon
after. M. Desjardins remained with the boat. The river
became more and more winding, and constantly dimin¬
ished in breadth and depth.

Between the lower and upper landings of Fort
Stanwix, it is only half a mile by land, while the distance
is two miles by water. In many places the boatmen were
obliged to cut their way with the axe, where trees had fall¬
en across and were floating or embedded. Finally, at ten
o’clock, we met at Fort Stanwix.

The difficulty of approaching the head of Mohawk River nav¬
igation, near Fort Stanwix [Rome], varied with the season. In the
typically dry weeks of September and October, water levels were
at their lowest. Normally boats in this season were taken out at the
Lower Landing and portaged overland.

But it was to the high water landing opposite Fort Stanwix that
the boatmen on this expedition were determined to go. The con¬
ditions they encountered, almost blocking navigation, indicate a
significant period of dis-use, suggesting that the Upper Landing
had been generally abandoned by 1793.

It is likely that the road discovered by Pharoux and Brunei on
their way to the Upper Landing was in fact the haul road from the
Lower Landing to Fort Stanwix.

It was in the clearing surrounding the Upper Landing, and in
the shadows of the ruins of Fort Stanwix, that the pair waited.

Meanwhile, the two bateaux for Canada, which had
preceded us, were drawn out of the water by oxen and
then loaded upon a double wagon, upon a beam adapted
to the size of the bateau. They were borne upon this sim¬
ple vehicle to the banks of Wood Creek. In waiting for the
return of the wagons, we took breakfast on the grass at
the place of landing.

The Fort Stanwix portage as it would have looked in the 1790s.

The portage between the Mohawk and Wood Creek
is a mile and a quarter in length. It is to be observed that
the waters of Wood Creek, which flows through Oneida
into Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and those of the
Mohawk, which are tributary to the North river, have
between them only a narrow space of ground, almost
level with Wood Creek, and not more than two feet high¬
er. A canal has been therefore projected to join these two
rivers, or rather brooks. It is the same company as that of
the Little Falls, under the name of the “Western Inland
Navieation Company”.

The expense of portage is the same as at the Little
Falls. The vehicles having returned, our bateau was
loaded upon a truck, and our goods upon a wagon, while
we followed on foot. The road is very smooth.

“The site of Fort Stanwix or Fort Schuyler is in this village. It contains
about two acres, and is a regular fortification, with four bastions and a
deep ditch. The position is important in protecting the passage between
the lakes and the Mohawk river. It is now in ruins, and partly demolished
by Lynch, its proprietor. Since the Revolutionary War a block-house was
erected here by the State, and is now demolished. About half a mile below
the Fort, on the meadows, are the remains of an old fort, called Fort
William; and about a mile west of Rome, near where Wood Creek enters
the Canal, there was a regular fort, called Fort Newport. Wood Creek is
here so narrow that you can step over it.”

DeWitt Clinton, 181079

We left to the right Fort Stanwix, which cost the
English £60,000 Sterling to build, as a barrier against the
French in Canada. The Americans seized it in the War of
Independence. The English allied with the Indians came
to besiege it, but a panic made them raise the siege,
believing that General Schuyler was coming to fall upon
them, although he was no nearer than Albany. Mr.
Gansworth of Albany, an American General, defended
this post, then in good condition, but now quite in ruins.
This place is nevertheless one of the best located for
building an arsenal and depot for Congress. The eleva¬
tion of the fort is altogether of made land, which rendered
its expense so enormous as compared with its small size.

Although standing at the division between the eastern and
western watersheds, and in spite of having been a place of intense
military activity for the bulk of the eighteenth century, this locale
had not exhibited any significant growth by the early 1790s:

The situation at Fort Stanwix appears destined to

38

The Oneida Carry

Navigation westward from Old Fort Schuyler

[Utica] did not present so great an obstacle as
one might have suspected, for although the
channel was narrow, it lacked, for the most part, the
troublesome rifts of the channel below:

“At noon, we reached Fort Stanwix, to
which place with the aid of some art, the River
continues adapted to inland navigation to boats
of five ton burden.”

Elkanah Watson, 1791 80
However, the traveler arriving at the head of
Mohawk River navigation in the 1790s encountered a
barrier to their westward voyage consisting of a mile or
more of rugged lowland separating the Mohawk, which
now ran in a north-south direction, from Wood Creek to
the west. Here a portage had existed from the earliest
days of travel, as no one could continue westward by
any other means except Wood Creek. And it was here that the several British forts had been built in the mid-eighteenth
century to guard this portage - the gateway to the Mohawk Valley and the fertile heartland of the region to the east for
hostile forces descending from the west.

Although only a piece of low ground, with the waterways on either side of it differing less then two feet in eleva¬
tion, the Oneida Carry was the summit of the entire inland route. It separated the eastward flowing Mohawk/Hudson
watershed, with its outlet to the Atlantic at Manhattan, from the network of westward flowing waterways which eventu¬
ally entered the St. Lawrence via Lake Ontario. These west flowing waterways began here with tiny Wood Creek.

In the season of high water, batteaux could come up the narrow Mohawk channel to a point nearly opposite Fort
Stanwix, termed the “Upper Landing.” From here boats were portaged along a crude road to the ruins of Fort Newport,
on the banks of Wood Creek, about a mile to the west. There they could be reloaded and float downstream on the surge
of water from Lynch’s millpond. Such was the experience of General Lincoln’s treaty expedition, which passed here in
May of 1793:

“Our boats and stores being all in Wood Creek, which at the head is little more than the width of a boat,
and very little water running in it, being ponded above, for the use of mills, - when we were ready to go down,
the gates were hoisted, and the creek was soon so full of water as to float the boats. We went down with the
current, which would have been very agreeable, had not the creek been very full of timber, which had from
time to time fallen into it. There are considerable lands on each side this river which are interval, and are often,
in the spring, overflowed.”

Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 179381

The French party, passing this same place five months later, faced a frustrating lack of water on both sides of the
carrying place that was more typical of the conditions encountered by travelers. On the Mohawk they could only come
up as far as the “Lower Landing”, nearly a mile downriver. Although their batteau was brought over to the same depar¬
ture point on Wood Creek, near Fort Newport, it was forced to go down empty as far as Canada Creek, while its cargo
went the same distance overland. This was often the case during the later summer months:

“From the Mohawk, at fort Schuyler, to wood creek, there is a carrying place of one mile. In the spring
there is generally a sufficiency of water to enable the batteaus to descend with their cargoes on board; but in
summer season, it is necessary to convey the lading further by land, to Canada creek; and then there is some
difficulty to float the empty boat down, though aided by a flush of water, collected in the mill dam, during the
preceding night.”

William Weston, 179582

39

become a great city. It lies in an open plain, - healthy, and
exactly between the eastern and western waters. There is a
large clearing round the old fort, and two or three scatter¬
ing houses. No progress has, however, been made since I
attended the treaty here in 1788, although the plan of a city
is now contemplated.

Elkanah Watson, 1791 83

It was the completion of the Rome Canal, in 1797, which
transformed the embryonic settlement of Fort Schuyler into the
village of Rome:

Rome was laid out into a town, after the Canal was
made or contemplated. It derives its principal advantages
from this communication.

DeWitt Clinton, 181084

Significant as this catalyst to local development was in 1797,
a decade later a traveler through that canal saw little evidence of
prosperity:

Rome, formerly known as Fort Stanwix, is delight¬
fully situated in an elevated and level country, command¬
ing an extensive view for about ten miles around. This vil¬
lage consists at present of about eighty houses; but it seems
quite destitute of every kind of trade, and rather upon the
decline. The only spirit which I perceived stirring among
them was that of money digging ; and the old fort betrayed
evident signs of the prevalence of this mania, as it had lit¬
erally been turned inside out for the purpose of discovering
concealed treasure.

Christian Schultz, 180785

In 1793 the area surrounding the batteau landing on Wood
Creek, the embarkation point for all traffic into the western water¬
ways, was still in the most rudimentary stages of settlement, as
revealed by the French journal.

We pitched our tent at the Wood Creek landing, as
the stream was then almost dry. We could not go at once,
but must wait for the waters of a mill, a quarter of a
mile above, which the millers only let off when his pond
was full, to the great detriment of travelers. This mill
ought to be suppressed, when the plans in contempla¬
tion are executed.

They had made some clearings at the place where we
were encamped. After having pealed the bark the preced¬
ing year, to allow them to dry on the spot, or to make
fences, all the underbrush and branches of the large trees
are piled and burned. The trunks are cut into logs fourteen
feet long, either for making fences around their clearings,
or for sawing into plank, or for use in building log houses.

All the unsound trees, as well as those that are dry or use¬
less, are drawn together to be burned. They carefully gath¬
er their ashes, which they sell at from sixpence to a shilling
a bushel, according to quality. An acre of well grown wood
will yield three or four dollars worth of ashes, and actual¬
ly costs eight dollars to make the clearing.

“The trees were chopped down, cut into convenient lengths, hauled
together, and rolled into piles along with the limbs and brush and then
the whole heap was burned. As soon as the fire had died, the ashes were
gathered and leached and the resultant lye boiled in big potash kettles
shaped like a half eggshell. The bottom of the kettle was cast thick so as
to endure the strain of evaporating the lye down to a solid mass. The
resultant cake was known as “black salts” and was dark in color through
carbon and other impurities. This black salts was the form in which
potash was sold by the farmer.

“The usual price was about three dollars per hundred pounds...and
this was sometimes the only cash money the pioneer saw. At this same
period butter was fourteen cents a pound, but this was ‘in trade’ as the
phrase was and not in cash. Sometimes after the burning of a huge log
pile which represented a week of hard work, a sudden heavy shower
would leach the ashes before they could be gathered, thus entailing a total
loss.

“The asheries which purchased the black salts from the producers
were establishments thickly scattered over some parts of the state. At
these asheries were brick kilns in which these crude salts were burned at
a high temperature, consuming the carbon and fusing the mass into a
bluish white and much purer product, then known as ‘pearl ash’.

“Not all farmers did even their own leaching and boiling. Some ash¬
eries maintained teams which went around the countryside collecting the
ashes and paying eight cents a bushel for them, an actually surprising
price in that day when a dollar seemed a very considerable sum of
money.”

Jared van Wagonen, 195386

A typical rural ashery.

The production of potash was the first commercial venture for
newly arrived settlers in the West, and would remain a major seg¬
ment of agricultural production along the moving frontier for
decades to come.

Batteaux carried thousands of barrels of potash and pearl ash
down to Schenectady, to be forwarded on to European markets
where the demand, in this time, was extremely high.

The company of three French explorers, three Yankee boat¬
men, and their German guide, were eyewitnesses, as they camped
on the western fringes of the Mohawk Valley, to a scenario repeat¬
ed innumerable times as settlers pushed the frontier into virgin
forest.

Using fire as a tool, woodland was being rapidly converted
into crop land:

40

Perhaps the most
ambitious of the
unprecedented

navigation improvements of
the Western Inland Lock
Navigation Company, and
without doubt the most strate¬
gically located, was the Rome
Canal completed in 1797. This
nearly two-mile long canal
surmounted once and for all
the Great Carrying Place that
had, since prehistoric times,
separated the eastward and
westward flowing waterways
that made up the inland
transport route.

Although the route of
this canal, which roughly
followed the old portage
road from the Mohawk
“Lower Landing” to the
Wood Creek landing near
Fort Newport, crossed nearly

level ground, excavation of the artificial channel had to be forced through virgin timber and swamps. Being built at the
summit separating two major watersheds, the westerly of which was very poorly supplied with water, the Rome Canal
had to be served by a long feeder, cut to it from a dam on the upper Mohawk, above Fort Stanwix.

Two locks, of a ten foot lift and an eight foot lift, allowed boats to pass into and out of the canal, with the lock on
the Mohawk being served by an ample turning basin for boats waiting to pass into the river. In contrast to the wooden
locks built at Little Falls a couple years earlier, and the stone locks to be built the next year at German Flatts, the locks
of the Rome Canal were constructed of oversized bricks, made at a temporary brickyard built in Rome for the purpose.

In October of 1797 the first boats passed through the canal, enjoying an easy passage of just 40 minutes where a
laborious portage of hours duration had existed previously. The following year General Schuyler reported on this, the
most triumphant of his navigation improvements:

“The length of the canal from the Mohawk to Wood Creek is two miles and three chains, one-third of
which distance is cut through a gravelly hill from twelve to eighteen feet in depth. The width is thirty-seven
and a half feet, and boats drawing three and a half feet of water may pass freely along it.

A lateral branch is cut from the canal to the Mohawk River, upwards of five hundred yards in length, and
from ten to twelve feet deep; by means of this feeder any quantity of water can be taken into the canal and dis¬
charged into Wood Creek or the Mohawk, as circumstances may require... There is a lock at each extremity of
the canal, the one of ten feet lift, and the other of eight feet. Five handsome and substantial bridges are con¬
structed over the canal and feeder.”

Philip Schuyler, 179887

The completion of the Rome Canal heralded a qualitative leap forward in inland navigation. Now the size of boats
was no longer restricted by the demands of portaging. It was this canal, more than any of Schuyler’s other improve¬
ments, that catalyzed the introduction of the Durham boat, and transformed the nature of water-borne transport in the
region, if not in the nation.

The Rome Canal

41

Woodsman heading into the forest.

We witnessed this night a very singular spectacle.
Some dry and hollow trees were burning at the top , and
appeared like enormous flambeaux. Others formed
columns of flame, being on fire the whole length of the
trunk, while masses of flaming brush formed the base of the
perspective. In the glare of all these fires, five tents belong¬
ing to as many bateaux, that were to go in the morning and
then lay dry in Wood Creek - the portage wagons - the farm
stock - the log buildings - the scattered piles of baggage - the
camp fires, around which each party was making their sup¬
per, and all illuminated, presented a tableau, as seen from
our tent, at once novel and picturesque.

This “spectacle”, so often associated with the clearing of new
settlements, could still be observed a generation later in the
Genesee country:

As a great many settlers had lately fixed themselves
in this part of the State, log-cabins were rising in all direc¬
tions, and the work of clearing was going on rapidly. Each
little open spot was covered with masses of burning timber;
and the large trees that had been girdled the year before,
were in many places in flames even to the tops, producing
at night a very extraordinary and splendid effect.

William Newnham Blane, 182288

The destruction of virgin forest appeared less romantically,
however, to those who participated in it, as recalled by one who
lived in that period:

Those men, with strong arms, hard hands, and iron
frame, might daily be seen, wending their way with knap¬
sack on their backs, an axe lashed on the outside, and with
gun on their shoulder, seeking a favourite resting place,
prepared to grapple with the hardships and privations of
frontier life, till the forests could be prostrated, the country
improved, and the modes of civilized life and luxurious liv¬
ing, could take the place of unmitigated toil.

Levi Beardsley, cl 791 89

Rather than something to be admired and preserved, the mag¬
nificent forests of the western frontier represented a frustrating
nuisance to those attempting to establish an agricultural society.

42

CHAPTER SIX

Upper Wood Creek

43

The passage of boats from the eastward flowing headwaters
of the Mohawk navigation, at Fort Stanwix, to the west¬
ward flowing waters of Wood Creek brought navigators to
a point in the stream just below Dominick Lynch’s millpond, near
the site of old Fort Newport.

Even in periods of good water, help from the millpond was
desirable, as the stream at the landing was almost unimaginably
tiny:

...this day got our batteaux &c. over to Wood Creek - Wood
Creek at this place being no more than a shallow Brook of
about 10 or 12 feet wide.

William Hartshome, 179390

In the dry season, the miller’s assistance was essential. But
even with this added surge of water, passage down the upper sec¬
tion of Wood Creek was difficult:

Although aided by the sluice, we progressed with
infinite difficulty. In many places the windings are so sud¬
den, and so short, that while the bow of the boat was
ploughing in the bank on one side, her stem was rubbing
hard against the opposite shore. In some places our men
were obliged to drag the boats by main strength; and in oth¬
ers, the boughs and limbs were so closely interwoven, and
so low, as to arch the creek completely over, and oblige all
hands to lie flat. These obstacles, together with sunken logs
and trees, rendered our progress extremely difficult, - often
almost impracticable.

Elkanah Watson, 179191

Boatmen looked forward to reaching the junction with Canada
Creek, several miles to the west, where some relief was to be
found in the added water. But reaching Canada Creek was not
always easy:

On their arrival at the landing-place, the boat was
unladen, hauled out of the water, and conveyed, together
with the cargo, on wagons across the carrying-place, to
Wood creek, where, if it happened that there was a suffi¬
ciency of water, the cargo was taken on board again, and
the boat, aided by a flush from a mill-dam, descended the
creek to the Oneida Lake; but if the water was low (which
was generally the case from the beginning of June to
October), the lading was conveyed five miles further to
Canada Creek, along a road scarcely passable. The delay
and consequent expense at this season was very great...

Philip Schuyler, 179892

So it was with the French expedition.

Friday , October 11th. The flotilla of bateaux was unable
to move until about nine o’clock. The miller having
detained the waters, the men, who were there in numbers,
made him open the sluices. Notwithstanding this momen¬
tary relief, it was still so low that M. M. Pharoux and
Desjardins undertook to go by land to the mouth of Little
Canada Creek, where the bateau would find some water
to float in, from the junction of the two streams.

It was seven miles from the portage to Captain
Reynis ’ tavern, built at the junction of the two creeks. We
crossed on the bridge in front of the mill, which had so
much delayed our movement, and found the road very
bad. Although causewayed in marshy places, it was built
of trunks of trees bedded in the ground, crosswise and
side by side. These causeways had been neither repaired
nor kept up, and the road was so cut up in many places,
that it was often very difficult to get along even upon foot.

Travel along this westward extension of the portage road at
Rome was necessitated by periods of low water, as the journalists
experienced in mid-October of 1793. Batteaux were sent down
empty from the landing below Lynch’s millpond to the Canada
Creek junction, while passengers, often encumbered with bag¬
gage, struggled over the land route. Another party, passing this
way in the Spring of this same year, made note of the situation:

It took up this day to get the boats and baggage across
the carrying place, one mile, to Wood Creek, a small stream
about ten yards wide, and very shoal. Five of our company,
on the morning of the 17th, took wagon, and proceeded
down Wood Creek by land. But such a ride I never had
before. Pole bridges, slotches of mud and water, and short
nob hills, sometimes one side, then another, like to overset.
And the wagon, very shackling, made the tour very dis¬
agreeable. However, in about three hours, we arrived at
Captain Ranney’s, at the junction of Canada Creek, the
whole of the eight miles, a dreary hemlock and beech
wilderness, without inhabitant that I saw, except musquetoes
in thousands. It appears well adapted for their existence.

Jacob Lindley, 179393

It was to this same tavern that the three Frenchmen walked
during the morning of October 11th.

We arrived at noon at Captain Reynis ’ tavern. It was
a very good one, and we found there a great many travelers.

Here they awaited the arrival of the batteau they had left at the
landing in Rome, and here, again, they were able to examine the
nature of the stream that would carry them west.

The Wood Creek derives its name from the quantity
of wood with which it was encumbered. The canal com¬
pany has cleared it out as far as to this junction, yet,
notwithstanding these repairs, our bateau did not rejoin
us until half past four o’clock in the evening, and our
people were so fatigued that we could not think of going
any further. We pitched our tent at the mouth of the Little
Canada Creek, which forms the boundary of the Rosevelt
Patent and extends from thence to Lake Ontario, and to
the Constable purchase.

During the next ten years, this isolated outpost of civilization
would grow to include two taverns and a small warehouse for
goods awaiting forwarding, all standing along the north shore of
Wood Creek. Almost forgotten on a low ridge opposite, were the
remains of an even more isolated outpost, constructed by the
British in the 1750s:

44

Canada Creek Junction

The junction of
Canada Creek
with Wood
Creek was a stopping
place of some import,
since prehistoric times.
Aside from incidental
clearings associated
with the innumerable
boatmen’s and
soldier’s camps pitched
around this intersection
in the eighteenth
century, no improve¬
ments were made here
much before the 1790s.

The tiny fort that was the only occupation of any substance before then. Fort Rickey, stood on the south bank of the
stream and had long since rotted away. But by 1792, the family of Archibald Armstrong had staked its claim to the spot:
“At the junction of Canada Creek and Wood Creek is a good farm; possessed by the Widow Armstrong. She
has about twenty acres cleared and it is a good situation for business, it being always a halting place for batteaux.”

James Cockbum, 179294

In this time, a woods road ran through the area along the north bank, westward toward Oswego, and a primitive bridge
no doubt carried land travelers across Canada Creek to the opposite bank. Ten years earlier, however, one was left to devise
their own crossing:

“On arriving at Canada Creek, a tributary of Wood Creek, two trees were fallen to bridge the stream.”

Capt. Alexander Thompson, 178395

The widow Armstrong’s home served as a public house in the 1790s, and her hospitality was cited by at least one
grateful traveler:

“There came up a great rain storm, with thunder and lightning; we proceeded rapidly, and discovered after
a few minutes a light in a small cottage. It was that of Widow Armstrong on the comer of Wood and Canada
creeks, 7 miles from Fort Stanwix... we are now engaged in drying our clothes by a good fire and Mrs.

Armstrong is preparing our supper and couches. On Sunday we bid adieu to the good widow Armstrong, who
left nothing undone which was in her power to render her homely cottage comfortable to us.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 179296

Eventually, however, another house, perhaps built specifically as a tavern, was erected on the opposite side of Canada
Creek. It is without doubt that it was Seth Ranney’s [“Reynis”’] tavern at which the Frenchmen waited for their batteau to
catch up to them in October of 1793. Ranney had come to the area around 1786 and had initially settled near Fort Stanwix.
There he built the first two story frame house in Rome, later used as a tavern in 1792 and a storehouse in 1793.

He apparently operated the tavern at the Canada Creek junction in 1793, which later became “Gilbert’s”, a place
much noted in journals of the early 1800s:

“Gilbert’s house is a decent comfortable house, considering the little resort of travelers. The grounds
around it are overflown by the creek, and the situation unhealthy.”

DeWitt Clinton, 181097

The Gilbert and Ranney families were related by marriage, and it was Thomas Gilbert with whom General Schuyler
lodged in 1802 as he supervised the construction of the first of the four wooden locks built in Wood Creek by the
Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. A number of his reports from the field were written from “Mr. Gilbert’s
house near Canada Creek...” Gilbert had a storehouse near the bank of Wood Creek in which he held goods waiting to be
forwarded by wagon or batteau. The tiny commercial complex which grew up here, isolated in the forest, was an oasis
on the margin of an otherwise dismal navigation down Wood Creek to Oneida Lake.

45

Just after passing the store-house, which is situated
below the last lock, a considerable rapid stream, called
Canada Creek, unites with Wood Creek from the right. This
is nearly as large as the former, but not navigable.
Immediately opposite their junction are the remains of Fort
Rickey, a fortress of some consequence during the old
Indian wars; but at present employed to a better purpose,
being covered with a good orchard.

Christian Schultz, 180798

The lock mentioned in the 1807 account was one of the four
wooden locks built in this stretch of Wood Creek in 1802 and
1803 to provide a deep water navigation for the larger boats of
that period, including the huge Durham boats.

It was particularly these larger craft that were frustrated by the
lack of water above Canada Creek, but even the smaller batteaux
found navigation very tenuous:

I have heretofore remarked that the mode adopted to
render Wood Creek navigable was to collect the water by
means of a mill dam, thus creating a sudden flood to carry
boats down. Some times boats did not succeed in getting
through to deep water on one flood and were consequently
obliged to await a second one. As we were coursing down
the creek during the voyage on our first flood we overtook
a boat which had grounded after the previous one, the nav¬
igators of which were in the water ready to push her off as
soon as the coming tide should reach them.

Augustus Porter, 1790"

The bottleneck which this section of poor navigation produced
for shipping, particularly that coming in from the west, threatened
the success of the Rome Canal [1797] and the viability of the nav¬
igation company. It was this threat that prompted Schuyler to
complete the improvement of the upper section of Wood Creek:

Above Gilbert’s the Company have erected four
wooden locks, which are absolutely necessary, at a small
expense, when compared with their stone locks at the
Little Falls...

too

The lock near what was then Gilbert’s Tavern, at Canada
Creek, was completed in 1802. It was the most westerly of the
locked canal improvements of Schuyler’s company, and enhanced
the minimal commercial development here, represented in 1793
by just one, isolated tavern.

We dined and supped in the tavern, which is sur¬
rounded by the woods, although a part has been newly
cleared. M. M. Pharoux and Brunei visited the woods in
the afternoon to hunt, but they found no game. On every
hand it was a fearful solitude. You are stopped sometimes
by impassable swamps, and at other times by heaps of
trees that have fallen from age, or have been overturned
by storms, and among which an infinite number of
insects and many squirrels find a retreat. On every hand
we see the skeletons of trees overgrown with moss, and in
every stage of decay. The Capillain and other plants and
shrubs spring out of these decaying trunks, presenting, at
once, the images of life and of death.

“We went this day as far as Gilbert’s Tavern on the north side of the
creek, six and a-half miles by water, and four and a-half miles by land,
from Rome.

“We saw a bright red-bird about the size of a blue-bird. Its wings
were tipped with black, and the bird uncommonly beautiful. It appeared
to have no song, and no one present seemed to know its name. I saw but
three besides in the whole course of my tour, one on the Ridge Road west
of the Genesee River. It is, therefore, a rara avis.

“On the banks of the creek were plenty of boneset, the Canada shrub,
said to be useful in medicine, and a great variety of beautiful flowering
plants. Wild gooseberry bushes, wild currants, and wild hops were also to
be seen. The gooseberries were not good; the hops are said to be as good
as the domestic ones. In the long weeds and thick underwood we were at
first apprehensive of rattlesnakes, of which we were told there are three
kinds - the large and the small, and the dark rattlesnake. But neither here
nor in any part of our tour did we see this venomous reptile. The only ani¬
mals we saw on this stream were the black squirrel and the hare, as it is
called in Albany, a creature white in winter, of the rabbit kind, although
much larger.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810101

An eyewitness image of the Canada Creek junction in 1815, revealing
the covered lock of the WILNC (center, background).

DeWitt Clinton, 18101

46

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lower Wood Creek

47

Of all the inland navigation from Schenectady to Oswego,
on the Great Lakes, there was no more fragile passage
than that down Wood Creek. So noted James Cockbum
during field surveys in the region in 1792:

Wood Creek at present is so crooked and so full of
timber that is with difficulty a common batteau can pass.

James Cockburn, 1792 102

The removal of the obstructions to transportation which this
tiny stream presented was so critical, in a region through which no
roads worthy of the name as yet passed, that General Schuyler
made it his first priority on assuming the presidency of the
Western Inland Lock Navigation Company in 1792. In July of the
following year he announced his plans:

The western Wood Creek is comprised to extend
from the landing at Fort Stanwix to the Oneida Lake,
between 24 & twenty eight miles, and such were the
obstructions from sunken & other trees when the water was
low that a boat could not descend in less than two days,
altho passages had been cut through the heaps of timber
which extend from the bottom to far above the surface of
the water, hence the impediments to be removed there are
probably greater than between Fort Ann & Lake
Champlain and yet a Mr. Richardson ... has undertaken to
clear the Western Wood Creek,... and is to cut thro 4 or five
necks of land, and to clear the banks, the whole for £900...

Philip Schuyler, 1793 103

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Frenchmen observed evi¬
dence of these activities as they passed down Wood Creek in their
batteau. It is perhaps fortuitous that they availed themselves of the
batteau, and the company, of one of Schuyler’s contractors in their
passage below Canada Creek, as they undoubtedly received the
benefit of his running commentary on the work underway.

Saturday, October 12th. Left at half past seven in the
morning. We discharged a part of our baggage into an
empty boat belonging to a contractor for clearing Wood
Creek, who was endeavoring to go down to rejoin his
workmen. The beginning of our route was still difficult,
on account of the very little depth of water and the trees
that had fallen in. The creek is so small that the branch¬
es of the trees on the opposite banks unite over head.
There are no clearings either on the right hand or the
left. With the exception of some paths made in the woods
by the Indians, there are neither tracks nor roads beyond
the Canada Creek, whose course is very sinuous and the
banks low. Mr. Scriba, one of the proprietors of the
Rosevelt patent, has actually marked a road from the
Canada Creek to New Rotterdam, an establishment that
he has formed upon Oneida Lake.

Along the creek we saw piles of wood made by the
workmen engaged on the repairs. They cut large trunks
into pieces, eight or ten feet long, and float them to the
places where deep water is to be maintained at the
entrance of Oneida Lake. They take the rest to the bends
of the creek which are to be closed when the cuttings for

straightening the channel have been made. The bottom of
the creek is an angular gravel but slightly rounded.

At two miles from where we started, the Black Creek
joins its waters, flowing over a gravelly bed, which is
washed down in the spring. Mr. DeZeng observed to us
that the height of land forming the dividing point of the
waters was at Fort Stanwix, in this part of the State of
New York, and that on the lakes the east wind brought
rain, while on the Mohawk, and thence to the Atlantic
Ocean, it was the west wind.

They have cut many of the trees that overhung the
stream, which has made it lighter and facilitated the nav¬
igation. On our left the lands are reserved by the
Oneida Indians, while on the right lies the Rosevelt
patent. Beyond Black Creek the bottom is a fine sand,
and the low banks present a country very fit for con¬
version into meadows.

Within a few miles of the start of their journey down the
stream, the journalists were to come upon a sequence of truly dra¬
matic and unprecedented waterway projects; thirteen short canals
undertaken that summer by Schuyler’s contractors. Executed with
experimental engineering in the depths of the wilderness, these
cuts are some of the earliest artificial waterways in North
America.

At four miles from where we started, we came to the
first cutting; narrow and very straight and without slope.

We are told that in high water the river will soon make a
channel here, and of itself finish the work. In the mean¬
time, until Nature, with her all-powerful and most active
hand, shall finish the labor thus imperfectly begun by the
Americans, we had great difficulty in passing these pre¬
tended canals, and not without fear that the banks might
cave in and bury our bateau in an instant.

Not far from thence we met the men and oxen of the
contractor, busy in removing from the creek some fallen
trees. In the part already cleared, there remained a few
that were not very troublesome, which had probably been
left to be cleared out by some future inundation. If this
contractor would use a windlass, or only a cable and pul¬
leys fastened to the trees along the bank, he would do
thrice the amount of work in half the time; but no
mechanical appliances were used, and everything was
done by the sheer force of men and animals. They
appeared not even to know the use of a ladder, much less
of a crane, or of the simplest labor saving power. This
first cutting shortens the distance half a mile.

At eight miles beyond is another cutting worked in
the same way, which shortens the creek three quarters of
a mile. A little before reaching it there occurs on the left
side a place called the White Oak Orchard.

Although one of the most historic sites along Wood Creek in
this era, and throughout the eighteenth century, the “Oak
Orchard” is given only a passing notice in the journal of the expe¬
dition. It may have escaped notice at all, had it not been for the
probable commentary of the contractor, accompanying them in
the company batteau, or of Major DeZeng.

48

“Oak Orchard”

The “Oak Orchard” consisted of a sandy knoll standing in a sharp bend of Wood Creek. Prior to the cutting of a
canal across this neck of land by Schuyler’s company in 1793, the meander loop provided a convenient batteau
landing. The elevated hill, presumably devoid of undergrowth due to the oak grove that had established itself there,
provided the camping ground.

As there is no evidence of Native occupation of the site, we may assume the first occupant was La Whiten De Wardenou;
a Frenchman who came here in 1796, or early in 1797. There was much romance attributed to this family in nineteenth century
histories:

“In some respects, the truth was stranger than the fiction. De Wardenou and ‘Celeste’... were married, and
embarked for America... Here misfortune overtook him, and he nearly lost his all, when they emigrated to the
vicinity of the Oneida Lake. Even here trouble sought them out. A lovely little child, their first born, sickened
and died, in 1797. No coffin could be procured. Its little cradle was substituted. A few years after, when the
Western Inland Lock Navigation Company were about erecting a structure at the Oak Orchard, in digging for
the foundation, they disinterred a cradle containing the skeleton of a child. This, no doubt, was the remains of
the child of De Wardenou, the first deceased from a natural cause, within the limits of Verona.”

Pomeroy Jones, 1851 104

Apparently De Wardenou had abandoned his homestead at Oak Orchard almost immediately after his child’s death,
as travelers later that year note his absence:

“At last got up to Oak Orchard... when the men being much fatigued, and the sun almost down, concluded
to rest for this night. Here we found several boats which had come down. The crews gave us very discouraging
accounts of the scarcity of water above... Slept at Oak Orchard where a man lives who has bought out the
Frenchman who formerly lived there.”

Alexander Coventry, 1797105

The structure cited in the nineteenth century account, being built here in 1802 by Schuyler’s contractors, was the lock
tender’s house for a new timber lock proposed to be built the following year to improve the navigation of the lower part of
Wood Creek. Evidence that the rift at Oak Orchard was the first obstacle to eastward navigation encountered by the big
boats coming up toward Rome is found in several journals written in the opening years of the nineteenth century. General
Schuyler himself confirms this, when he writes in 1802 that once improvements are made in the rivers to the west of
Oneida Lake, “...there will be a complete navigation from Oak Orchard to about a mile up the Seneca River beyond Three
River Point.” On his return trip up Wood Creek from Sylvan Beach, Schuyler chose the relative comfort of the spot to
stop, as so many had before him:

“...ascended Wood Creek. Reached the Oak Orchard, a distance of 8 miles, at 10 o’clock. Breakfasted and
proceeded at 12 and reached Canada Creek at half past three.”

Philip Schuyler, 1802106

continued on next page

49

continued from page 49

Although the lock at Oak Orchard was never constructed, the locktender’s house was finished in October. It was 1
1/2 stories high, with a cellar, brick chimney, and an attic for Company equipment and supplies. The living quarters were
to be covered in plaster on lath and well finished, making this one of the grander houses on Wood Creek:

“The house should be 20 feet by 36 feet, with a chimney in the middle. The posts 12 feet long, which will
afford a tolerable garret as a store room for the company’s effects required in the construction of the lock. The sills
of the house should be 2 1/2 feet above the surface of the earth and under one half of it a cellar, the walls of which
to be a frame of pitch pine with plank behind the posts to support the earth. If you can procure any person to erect
the house, by contract on which you may deem reasonable terms, I wish you to do so - The house should be erected
on the south side of the creek as nearly opposite to the lock as circumstances will permit.”

Philip Schuyler, 1802107

The Company carpenter was brought down from the construction sites of the locks on the upper end of Wood Creek to
take care of the house, which apparently was abandoned when the plans for this lock failed to find approval with the Directors
of the Company:

“I went to Oak Orchard Monday to examine the house built there &
found it completed. & on Wednesday I sent Ambrose Jones (one of our car¬
penters) with his family to live there & take care of the house. He is to work
one month felling timber on the banks of the Creek & have wages as an
axman - in case any work is to be done [on the lock] this winter, he will of
course be employed. I thought this the best method I could take to secure the
house from injury until further orders from the Committee.”

George Huntington, 1802 108

There was concern the following year that the house, now of no use, was at risk:

“If the house at Oak Orchard should be uninhabited I apprehend it may
be much injured and perhaps exposed to conflagration, if fire should be left in
it, by careless or malignant boatmen.”

Philip Schuyler, 1803 109

Evidence does not permit us to know if this historic structure was eventually
burned, or found use at the hands of later settlers.

As recently as May of this same year. General Benjamin
Lincoln, en route to a treaty conference in Ohio, had used this site
as an encampment for his small flotilla of batteaux:

We encamped at night, for the first time, at what is
called the Oak Orchard, from its being a high point of land
on which are a few oaks. Oaks are not to be seen in gener¬
al in this part of the country.

Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1793 110
A Quaker riding in another of General Lincoln’s batteaux also
cites the location:

...at 6 in the evening encamped by a place called the Oak
Orchard, 18 miles by water from Fort Stanwix - here is a
high spot on which are a few Oak Trees...

William Hartshome, 1793 111

These were only the latest in a long procession of batteaux to
stop here, including the monumental fleets of military vessels
which plied back and forth through this channel in the French and
Indian War and the Revolution.

The dry, sandy hill provided an attractive elevation above the
swamps and damp of the rest of the waterway, and apparently
supplied the only drinkable water to be had between Canada

Creek and Oneida Lake:

In the whole course of our navigation on Wood Creek
we saw not one building and found but one spring, called
Oak orchard, which was four minutes filling a small glass
and the water of which was but of middling quality.

Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795 112

With only passing mention of this significant location, the
1793 expedition continued down the narrow channel.

A mile beyond there is a third cutting which short¬
ens half a mile. There is no work done in that part of the
stream destined to be filled up. The fourth cutting short¬
ens three quarters of a mile and its bed is already encum¬
bered by the trees and sand that have tumbled in - but all
this, they say, will go off in high water.

A fifth cutting also shortens the distance half a mile.
The ancient bed of the creek is filled in with wood. The
sixth cutting is not yet filled with water and will also
shorten half a mile. It is three feet deep in the solid
ground and two feet in the sand beneath.

The seventh cutting, filled with water and already

50

The Wood Creek Cuts

Although extraordinarily shallow and narrow, Wood Creek remained a navigable link between the Mohawk River
and Oneida Lake in this period. Running primarily through deposits of sand and clay, its channel was unusually
free of rock and gravel, but often cluttered with timber.

The boatmen who navigated this route in the eighteenth century, whether for military or commercial purposes,
were forced annually to cut a passage through innumerable fallen trees and sunken logs. But beyond this, the meandering
course that Wood Creek followed increasingly frustrated boatmen:

“We arrived ere long at the singular neck of land, about a mile in length, and so small, that by standing,
we discovered the water at the opposite side. This was a tedious circumnavigation indeed. We might have
passed it in a few seconds if the passage had been cut.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792113

Although this “neck” was the most frustrating of the many meanders, it was characteristic of the problems faced
when navigating this 28 miles of narrow stream:

“In the summer of 1793, the directors caused wood creek to be cleared of the timber which had fallen into
it, in such quantity as almost altogether obstructed the navigation; and as the serpentine course of the creek
greatly increased the distance, from its source to its mouth, beyond that of a straight line, thirteen Isthmus’s
were cut, which made a reduction in the distance of more than seven miles. Its banks are, however, so thickly
covered with trees of the largest size, and so many of those, either from decay, or by the force of the winds, are
annually thrown into the creek, that it will be indispensably necessary to clear the banks of the timber, for the
distance of four rods at least, and contracts are proposed to be made for that purpose.”

Philip Schuyler, 1796 114

This press of virgin forest right to the water’s edge not only provided a never ending supply of falling trees to block
the passage, but also prevented the use of the banks as a towing path or walkway by which to relieve boats grounded in
the shallows. Little improvement in this situation was noted at the beginning of the next century:

“I could not perceive that the necessary improvement of cutting off the trees on the margin of the river has
been much attended to - the consequence is that trees are constantly falling in - & where the cuts have been
made at the necks - the stumps are settling into the bed of the channels which are extremely dangerous to
descending boats when the water is rapid.

Elkanah Watson, 1800115

The Frenchmen passing down Wood Creek in October of 1793 enjoyed the relative advantages of a newly cleared
channel and observed the creation of this unprecedented series of short “canals”, just being cut across the thirteen necks
of land along the stream’s course. From their timely and detailed observations, the only one’s known to describe this pro¬
ject underway, we can reconstruct the primitive engineering being applied here in the summer of 1793.

These cuts, among the earliest artificial waterways for navigation in North America, were created by first excavating
a ditch, about ten feet deep and half as wide, across each neck, and blocking the natural channel at the upstream end with
logs cut off the line of that ditch. The first high water episode to follow, forced to run through the tiny ditch, would
quickly carve out a “canal” that was soon indistinguishable from the rest of Wood Creek, and equally as navigable.

51

encumbered by the same causes, shortens half a mile.
The eighth, which has been finished six months, is
already much enlarged by the stream. It shortens the dis¬
tance half a mile, and from the experience here gained,
the contractor has not given more attention in excavating
the works above.

We passed through a ninth cut, in a sandy soil,
which shortens half a mile. The bottom is clay with the
remains of trees imbedded. A tenth cut, which is very
short, saves a quarter of a mile, [the ground good.] An
eleventh cut, [which is very short in sandy soil with a
bottom of clay, shortens a fourth of a mile.]

The twelfth cut, which is in a vegetable mold upon
sand, is not over five toises long, yet it saves a mile and a
quarter. The thirteenth and last cutting, which is already
greatly enlarged by nature, in a distance of ten toises
shortens a third of a mile.

These tiny canals, finished within a few months, drew almost
no mention in the journals of subsequent travelers. In part this
may have been due to the fact that once completed, the redirected
waters of Wood Creek quickly eroded these cuts to match the rest
of the natural channel. Certainly no other account but this one has
captured, at precisely the most opportune moment, the details of
their construction.

These thirteen cuttings shorten the navigation
about seven miles and a half, but it is to be apprehended
that the water, when less detained by the bends, will flow
more swiftly and not give so much depth as before.

At the outlet of the trenches we came to a very large
bateau of frame work belonging to the contractor, which
had been built upon the Seneca River. In time of high
water he had taken it up thus far, with all his implements
and provisions. This gave us an idea of the enterprising
spirit of the Americans, who will undertake anything. His
bateau has actually arrived, but it must wait till next year
until, by the help of high water, it can be moved.

Here, without realizing it, these travelers may have witnessed
the first Durham boat to enter the waterways of eastern New York.

The common batteau was 30 feet long and, with a crew of
three, carried a ton and a half. The typical Durham boat was 60
feet long, and with a crew of five or six, frequently carried 10 or
1 1 tons. This type of large river freighter would replace the bat¬
teau as Schuyler’s canals and other improvements eliminated the
portages that had kept boats small and light in the past.

The contractor selected by Schuyler to clear timber from
Wood Creek, and for the cutting of the thirteen canals across
necks of land, was John Richardson, a merchant of Cayuga, a
small village at the upper end of Cayuga Lake. It was only five
months earlier, in May of 1793, that he had been recommended to
Schuyler for the work along Wood Creek by a letter in which he
was connected with the creation of an unusual boat:

John Richardson ... has lately constructed a boat of
thirteen tons burden on a plan which has never before been
adopted in this State, and he has been so successful that we
have no doubt but his improvement will prove extensively
useful. He has brought this boat from the upper end of

Cayuga Lake with a freight of six tons without the least
inconvenience til about five miles up from the mouth of
Wood Creek, & nothing but the obstructions by logs &
trees prevented his coming up to Fort Stanwix...

Jonas Platt & Elias Kane, 1793 116

On November 3rd, 1793, just three weeks after the Frenchmen
observed his grounded boat, Richardson wrote from Wood Creek
to his friend in Little Falls, John Porteus:

Sir, I am much disappointed respecting the finishing
of Wood Creek, which would been completed some time
ago if there had been a flood. I do suppose that I could fin¬
ish in every respect agreeable to contract in one week with
the assistance of a flood, but as it is got so late in the sea¬
son, I conclude to let it lay till Spring. I have a great wish
to see you before I go home, but the situation of my mat¬
ters at home will not admit. It is almost five month since I
have seen my family. The nature of my work in Wood
Creek was such, when I would be away more than a day at
a time the men would get discouraged and be for quiting.

John Richardson, 1793 117

Durham boats hauling freight.

There can be little doubt that it was Richardson’s revolution¬
ary boat that lay stuck in the lower end of Wood Creek. It may
have even been Richardson himself that piloted the smaller bat¬
teau alongside the Frenchmen, as they descended the stream,
explaining his engineering achievements to a captive audience.

Prior to the completion of these extraordinary improvements
in the channel of Wood Creek, navigation here, as recorded in
1791, was memorable for its meandering and notable for its rare,
but often dramatic accidents:

The innumerable crooks and turns in Wood creek,
carried us to every point of the compass. We counted one
hundred and eighty-eight distinct points of land, from
Canada creek, on both sides. At a place called the Neck,
four miles from Oneida lake, we measured seven paces
across, and our boat had to go a mile round to meet us on
the opposite side.

A ludicrous scene took place this morning, which had
nearly proved fatal to one of our men, by the name of
Capron, who steered Gen. Van Cortland’s boat. This fellow
is a confounded glutton; - he devoured at a meal more salt
pork than two common men, and was of great bulk. In the
act of doubling short round a point of land, propelled by a
swift current, immediately after gorging himself with pork,

52

&c. and half asleep, a sly limb, which hung over the point,
struck him across the breast, and capsized him fairly back¬
wards, with a perpendicular plunge, to the bottom of the
creek.

As we were directly in the rear of that boat, I dis¬
tinctly saw this neat exploit. He rose along side of our boat,
like a young whale, spouting water from his nostrils and
mouth, and splashing the surface with both his hands. We
reached him just in time to save him from sinking a second
time. He fastened himself on the side of our boat, but as it
was impossible to get him in, the other boats came to our
aid, - and, between both, we towed him ashore, to the great
diversion of our men, who gave him three cheers, as he
touched bottom with his feet.

Elkanah Watson, 1791 118

DeWitt Clinton, soon to be Governor of the State, sustained
more insult than injury in a mishap at Oak Orchard in 1810:

We rose early in the morning [at Gilbert’s Tavern at
the Canada Creek junction] , and breakfasted at the Oak-
Orchard, six miles from Gilbert’s on the south side of the
river. The ground was miry, and, in stepping into the boat,
my foot slipped, and I was partly immersed in the creek.
The captain assisted me in getting out. The dampness of
the weather, and the sun being hardly risen, induced me,
for greater precaution, to change my clothes. This trifling
incident was afterwards magnified by the papers into a
serious affair.

DeWitt Clinton, 1810119

A couple of years before, Christian Schultz encountered the
treachery of the overhanging trees along the lower Wood Creek
channel:

The navigation of Wood Creek is not attended with
any hazard of drowning, or even staving a boat to pieces;
but the sudden turns of the stream, overhung with the
trunks and branches of trees, are not without their dangers,
as I experienced.

The boat being under considerable way, at a sudden
bend of the river, we unexpectedly discovered a tree, which
had been overturned by some late storm, stretched across
the stream, and supported by its branches in such a manner
as not to touch the water. Our captain immediately per¬
ceiving that it would be impossible to stop the boat in so
short a distance, directed every one to take care of himself,
and ran the boat under a part of the tree of sufficient height
to admit it; but, as it was much lumbered up a-mid-ships,
several of the articles were swept overboard. Amongst
these were my traveling trunk and portable desk, contain¬
ing my money, papers and apparel.

The desk floated along side, but the trunk, being very
heavy, sunk to the level of the water and stopped against
some of the branches. As it required some time, however,
to stop the boat and go up the stream, the trunk, on being
taken up, was full of water, to the no little injury of my
papers and clothing.

The most laughable circumstance attending this acci¬
dent was, that on missing my companion, and looking
round for him, I discovered him in the top of the tree which
we had passed under, whither he had jumped to avoid
being crushed, as he had not time to get aft where the boat
was less lumbered.

Christian Schultz, 1807 120

Having avoided any of the misfortune attending the navigation
of Wood Creek by others, Pharoux, Desjardins, and Brunei con¬
tinued westward to an improving situation.

Here we left the contractor and loaded our own
bateau. The more we advanced, the more the stream
widened and deepened, and about four miles beyond the
last cutting we entered Fish Creek, although they are
accustomed to call it Wood Creek to the lake. The Fish
Creek is altogether the larger, and should not be robbed
of its name by a brook, which is the only term the Wood
Creek deserves at the place of junction. We there found
the river quite wide and deep, and the lands along the
shore very low and wet. The west wind was prevailing,
and we heard the noise of the waves on the lake.

Below its junction with Fish Creek, Wood Creek became so
much deeper and wider as to be more navigable than even the
Upper Mohawk. The stable mud banks and bottom of the stream
eliminated the troublesome rocks that made many smaller streams
unnavigable, even for canoes.

Although not part of the inland corridor connecting the Great
Lakes with Albany, Fish Creek was a valuable waterway in its
own right:

Fish Creek enters Wood Creek, a mile from the lake,
on the north side. It is much larger and deeper, and derives
its name from the excellent fish with which it abounds, up
to the Falls, which are ten miles from its mouth. It is fre¬
quented by great numbers of salmon; and we saw Indians
with their spears at work after that fish, and met two canoes
going on the same business, with their pine knots and appa¬
ratus ready for the attack. The Indians have reserved the
land on each side of this creek, in order to secure them¬
selves the benefit of fishing.

The confluence of these streams makes a consider¬
able river from this place to the Oneida Lake, deep, wide,
and gloomy, and resembling the fabled Avemus. You can
see the track of its black and muddy waters a considerable
distance in the great basin into which it discharges.

DeWitt Clinton, 1810121

Clearly there was some pressure to improve the navigation of
the lower end of Fish Creek, for in 1809 a cut was made across
the neck of a very large meander, just upstream from the junction.
In technique it resembled those made along Wood Creek 15 years
before, but in scope it was vastly larger, both in its length and in
the size of the meander loop it shortened.

The contrast here must have impressed the boatmen, not
only because of the ease of navigation below this point, but
because the lands along Wood Creek were so unsuitable for set¬
tlement. The spring floods common in this locale had been
noted the year before:

53

I am doubtful whether a settlement could be made
along Wood Creek, the good land being so narrow; and I
imagine that in high waters it is all overflowed, in which
case there is no retreat - the swamp being lower than the
land where they must build.

Mr. James Dean the Oneyda Interpreter formerly set¬
tled about a mile above Fish Creek, where the vestiges of
his improvements are to be seen. I am informed he quit the
land on account of its being s much overflowed.

James Cockbum, 1792122

The valley of Fish Creek, however, offered a far more favor¬

able environment:

Wood Creek is joined on the right by Fish Creek,
which, with more propriety, might be denominated a river,
as it is at least five times as large as Wood Creek, but nav¬
igable for ten miles only. This stream is much resorted to
by the Oneida Indians, on account of the great quantities of
salmon and other fish which it affords; as, likewise, from
its being favoured with numerous springs of excellent
water, which, in this country, is considered as a very great
luxury.

Christian Schultz, 1807 123

James Dean, who had served as an interpreter

with the Oneidas during the Revolution, was the ;
first white man to penetrate the wilderness of i

the Wood Creek flatlands to attempt permanent set¬
tlement, nearly a decade before the French expedi¬
tion passed the remains of his homestead:

“Mr. Dean, ever after the war
enjoyed the confidence of the Oneida
Tribe. For his services, the Oneidas gave
Mr. Dean a tract of land two miles square, ;

the title to be confirmed and ratified by
the state. This was probably in 1783. He
chose for its location a tract upon the
north side of Wood Creek, in the present
town of Vienna.

“In the spring of 1784, he left
Connecticut with Jedediah Phelps and Andrew Blanchard, in company, to commence the settlement of his land.

The day of starting is not known, but they left Schenectady the 3d of May, and arrived at Wood Creek the 13th...

After Mr. Dean and his party arrived at Wood Creek, they built a log house and a shop for Mr. Phelps, who was a
brass-founder and silver-smith, and intended to work for the Indians. During the summer they made a small clear¬
ing, and although now covered with a second growth of timber, it still retains its name of ‘Dean’s place.”

Pomeroy Jones, 1 85 1 124 i

Apparently the location was selected at least in part to satisfy the commercial interests of Mr. Phelps, placing them
on a major navigation route by which to gain access to the western tribes:

“Mr. Phelps was a silversmith and brass founder and he intended to engage in that business, and to manu¬
facture rings and brooches for the Indians and Indian trade. Mr. Dean erected a log house close by Wood Creek,
and Mr., Phelps built a log shop near by for his business; they made a small clearing and then and there com¬
menced the first actual settlement of Oneida county, after the Revolution.”

Daniel E. Wager, 1896125

Their optimism was soon tarnished, however, by the intervention of natural forces:

“In the spring of 1785, the place became inundated to such an extent, that for three weeks they were oblig¬
ed to live in the garret of their log cabin, and for the purpose of cooking their meals, they descended from their i

loft into a canoe by a ladder, and then rowing to the shop, used the forge as their only fire¬
place above the high water mark. On the subsiding of the water, the party were fully satisfied that the selection
was an unfortunate one, and unfit for the commencement of a settlement.”

Pomeroy Jones, 1851 126

continued on next page

Deans Landing

A map of Fish Creek showing Dean’s Landing, c. 1809.

54

This prelude to the vast openness of Oneida Lake is often
noted in travelers’ journals because the passage down Wood Creek
had been so confining, by virtue of the lack of clearings and nar¬
rowness of the channel:

The lands, on each side of Wood creek, are low, and
heavily timbered with beach, maple, oak, elm, lynden, and
near the lake, some white pine. Bears are plenty, and deer
scarce. Within two miles of the lake, the river suddenly
widened; we took to our oars. Within one mile of the lake.
Fish creek falls into Wood creek from the north, about one
hundred feet wide. Thence to the lake the creek is bold and
spacious. We caught a catfish as large as a common sized

cod, measuring five inches between the eyes.

Elkanah Watson, 1791 127

Boatmen reaching the mouth of Wood Creek, and intending to
continue west, often were forced to postpone their crossing by the
potentially dangerous waters of what must have appeared to them
as an inland sea:

About three o’clock, we came to the entrance of
Oneida lake, which, though among the number of inferior
lakes, makes an awful appearance, and is doubtless a won¬
derful display of that infinite Wisdom and Power by which
the worlds are made. Our course along this little ocean

contuined from page 54

The impact of this situation is recorded in Dean’s own words:

“I arrived here [Wood Creek] the 16th instant in a good state of health, but long before my arrival was met
by the disagreeable account of the inundation, which like a deluge over-spreads this country, and which I found
to be too true. The water has been above two feet deep on my door-sill, and not ‘til yesterday were we able to
take possession of the lower room. All that I have seen who are acquainted with this country agree in assuring
me that the flood was never known to be so high before. However, the present appearance of it, and the possi¬
bility of what may happen again, has given me such a distaste to the country as has determined me to quit it as
soon as I conveniently can. But as I have already expended a considerable sum of money upon it, besides labor
and fatigue, I must endeavor to turn it to some advantage...”

James Dean, 1785128

The wide mouth of a small brook, which intersected Wood Creek at Dean’s original site, continued to provide a nat¬
ural mooring for batteaux, and was for many years to come identified as “Dean’s Landing.”

“Not far from this spot we discovered a clearing, extended towards the fish-creek... known by the name of
Capt. Phillips and Dean’s improvements. We left our canoe now and then to look at the land; it was low and flat
near the borders of the creek, and had the appearance of being annually overflowed.”

Adrian Vemderkemp, 1792129

The remains of this abortive settlement were still to be noted a quarter century after he abandoned the site:

“We passed James Dean’s old house on the right side, about two miles from the lake. He first went among the Oneidas
as a silversmith, vending trinkets. He afterwards acted as an interpreter and coaxed them out of large tracts of land.
He is now rich, a Judge of Oneida county, has been a member of the Assembly, and is a prominent Federalist.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810130

After being flooded out in 1785, Dean decided to renegotiate his grant of land from the Oneidas, and quickly relocat¬
ed a dozen miles to the southeast, to the vicinity of Westmoreland:

“Mr. Dean stating this to the Indians, they agreed
he might change the location to any point upon the west
side of the ‘line of property’ between Brothertown upon
the Oriskany and Wood Creek. He selected his land so
as to include the falls of the creek, since known as
Dean’s Creek... Mr. Dean’s energies were now directed
to clearing a farm, inducing settlers to remove to his
patent, and in building mills for their accommodation.

Success crowned his efforts, and it was but a few years
before every lot offered for sale was ‘taken up’ by an
actual settler.”

Pomeroy Jones, 1851 131

It was in this latter location that the French party would
again cross the path of James Dean as they struggled eastward
on their return trip toward Utica on an overland route.

A typical frontier homestead in its first year of occupation.

55

appeared to be a little north of west; and the wind being
brisk from that point, we raised our tents, as no habitation
appeared.

Jacob Lindley, 1793 132

So it was also for the seven men arriving there in mid-October
of that same year.

Near the mouth, on the left side upon the Indian
lands, we noticed the location of Fort Royal, built of logs,
which the French had constructed to shut off the English
from passing into Oneida Lake, and to hold the Iroquois
in check.

We were now about to enter the lake, but the setting
sun, and the troubled waves, induced us to return to the
Royal Blockhouse, the only place of any elevation in this
region, and we encamped there. We observed no other ves¬
tiges of the fort than the ditch, which was nearly filled up.

The members of this expedition were not the first, or the last,
to encamp on the site of the Royal Blockhouse. In spite of the
strategic location of this place on the transportation corridor that
crossed the region, there was neither tavern nor settler here in the
early 1790s.

The British, not the French as the journal suggests, built this
isolated fortification in 1759 to protect the entrance of Wood
Creek; the only military highway open to the French in the region.

The elevation on which the blockhouse had stood remained a
cleared and relatively comfortable location for encampment.

The blockhouse itself had already been destroyed by 1768, as
observed by a passing Canadian merchant:

...the Royal Blockhouse ... has been lately burned by
some drunken Indians ... and is situated on the easternmost
point of that Lake; Here I slept two nights among the ruins
of the Block House, being unable to put out on the Lake, as
it was very severe weather. Travelers are here detained
sometimes eight days on that account, as in crossing the
Lake they are obliged to cut from point to point, at least 10
miles distant; and the landing between these points being
very rocky and dangerous, they seldom venture on the
Lake, except in moderate weather.

John Lees, 1768133

This military structure, which might have served in place of a
tavern and as a shelter for travelers had it survived, had been lost
in a disastrous fire the year before John Lees encamped there:

A man arrived at this place (Fort Stanwix) two days
ago, who informed me that on the 12th at night, the Royal
Blockhouse took fire and was immediately consumed to
ashes. The fire (he said) first took in some of the logs near
the chimney by its being much worn away - there had been
three Senecas, two Oneidas, a Frenchman and three
squaws in the house at the time, who had lost all their
packs in the flames, by the accident being so unexpected
and so furious, even their dogs were burnt.

Lieut. Richard Aylmer, 1767134

It may have been its proximity to the breezes of Oneida Lake,
or just its elevation above the swampy lowlands of the area, that
made this spot a favored campsite. Those unfortunate enough to
have to stop along Wood Creek before reaching this spot of
refuge, as happened to a party in 1792, faced a more memorable
evening:

The approaching night compelled us to look out for a
convenient spot for our encampment, in which we soon
succeeded. Our tent was pitched, and a blazing fire pre¬
pared by the boys. We spread our carpet, and made our
beds ready waiting for our supper. Here thousands of
muskitoes welcomed us in their abode, obtruded their com¬
pany, and exhausted our patience by their treacherous
caresses, in which they continued till we had encircled our
tents with smoak, and yet we heard their singing... We cov¬
ered our faces with a veil before we went to sleep.

This was the first time in my life I slept in the woods,
and yet my sleep was sound, but short and not very refresh¬
ing, as I awoke fatigued, and was not at ease til I drove the
sleep from the eyes of all my companions, and had hurried
them to the canoe, to pursue our journey.

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792135

It would not be until 1796, three years after the
French voyage, that the first, and only, public tavern would
be established here, serving to the close of the era.

In this earlier time, the locale was entirely the domain of its
Native American inhabitants:

The Oneida Indians, from whom this lake derives its
name, are generally settled in this neighborhood. We had,
occassionally, met with one or two families of them previ¬
ously to our arrival at the lake, but here we found a collec¬
tion of about forty, who were amusing themselves with
shooting arrows, pitching quoits, and throwing large
stones. We made a stop here for the night, and found them
all remarkably civil and well disposed.

Christian Schultz, 1807 136

56

Mrs. Jacksons Tavern

In 1793, when the French expedition reached the entrance
to Oneida Lake [Sylvan Beach], there were no white set¬
tlers nor public houses anywhere in the area. It would be
three more years before this situation would change.

In May of 1796, Asahel Jackson arrived at the mouth of
Wood Creek from Massachusetts and built a house there:

“Very soon after, he opened a public-house for the
accommodation of boatmen. Mr. Jackson only lived about ten
years after his arrival, and after his death his widow kept the
tavern another ten years...”

Samuel Durant, 1878 137

Before this, travelers had to resort to their own camps,
often in the ruins of the Royal Blockhouse near-by. Once the
tavern was erected, this oasis of civilization stood out in the
minds of many who traversed the desolate wilderness from
Gilbert’s Tavern on Canada Creek to the cabins at the west
end of Oneida Lake:

“There is a tolerably good tavern kept at this place
by a Mrs. Jackson... and her sister, a young woman who,
you may be assured, displays no ordinary degree of
courage in dealing out whiskey to thirty or forty Indians
who generally rendezvous at this place, especially as
there is no other white settler within sight or call.”

Christian Schultz, 1807 138

Another traveler, passing this spot a few years later,
had a less benign opinion of the place:

“Near this tavern there are to be seen the marks of
an old fortification, covering about one-eighth of an acre,
and called the Royal Block-House. In this place. Col.

Porter and the young gentlemen made a tent of the sails
and setting poles, and, with the aid of a fire and our mat-
trasses, had a good night’s lodging. The other
Commissioners slept in the house; the window panes
were out and the doors open. The resort of Indians and
the sandy ground had drawn together a crowd of fleas,
which, with the musquitoes, annoyed us beyond suffer¬
ance the whole night. Some of the family sat up late; the
creakings of a crazy old building and the noise of voices,
added to our other annoyances, completely deprived us of
rest. The house was in other respects a comfortable one.

The ice, which we used to correct the badness of the
creek water, had a pleasant effect.”

DeWitt Clinton, 18 10139

It was shortly after this last encounter, apparently, that the Widow Jackson took a new husband and abandoned the
business for a more peaceful, and perhaps more practical, life.

57

CHAPTER EIGHT

Oneida Lake

59

For many navigators, the vista confronting them from
the beach at the east end of Oneida Lake was a source of
wonder, after so many hours struggling through the over¬
grown channel of Wood Creek. Here, also, the traveler was often
first exposed to the phenomenon of Native Americans in their
own domain:

We arrived at Mrs. Jackson’s tavern, at seven o’clock,
near the mouth of Wood Creek, which enters Oneida Lake
from the north-east. To the west, the eye was lost in the
expanse of waters, there being no limits to the horizon. A
western wind gently agitated the surface of the waters. A
number of canoes darting through the lake after fish in a
dark night, with lighted flambeaux of pine knots fixed on
elevated iron frames, made a very picturesque and pleasing
exhibition.

We walked on the beach, composed of the finest
sand, like the shores of the ocean, and covered with a few
straggling trees. Here we met with an Indian canoe, filled
with eels, salmon, and monstrous cat-fish. In another place
we saw the native of the woods cooking his fish and eating
his meal on the beach. We could not resist the temptation
of the cold bath. On returning to the house, we found an
excellent supper prepared; the principal dish was salmon,
dressed in various ways.

DeWitt Clinton, 1810140

It is here, in Oneida Lake, that the journalists of this period
most often note the picturesque spectacle of Native night fishing:

I made a small excursion along the border of this
lake, and, although the shore was low, yet I found a firm,
dry, white sandy beach to walk upon; some other parts of
it, however, I was informed, were low and swampy.

I was much amused in the evening by a singular illu¬
mination upon the lake, which I was at first wholly unable
to account for. The water at this part of the lake, it seems,
is very shallow for nearly half a mile from the shore, and
being perfectly transparent, and the bottom a white sand,
the smallest object may by readily distinguished. The
Indians have a method of taking salmon and other fish by
means of an iron frame fixed in the bow of the canoe, pro¬
jecting forward three or four feet, and elevated about five;
upon this they kindle a bright fire of pine knots, and while
one person sits in the stem with a paddle to impel the boat
forward, another stands in the bow with a sharp spear ready
to strike the fish who play about the light.

Ten or twelve of these canoes moving about irregu¬
larly on the lake, on a fine calm evening, with the reflec¬
tion of their lights, like so many lines of fire, extending
from each object to the centre on which you stand, afford
the most pleasing prospect, and far exceed, in my opinion,
the most brilliant display of artificial fire- works.

Christian Schultz, 1807141

“Immediately after breakfast we embarked, - doubled a point of land,
and entered the Oneida lake, with our sails filled to a light easterly
breeze. The lake opened to our view, like an ocean, spreading before us;
- we glided smoothly over its surface, and were delighted with a charm¬
ing day. On the south is the Oneida reservation, at present inhabited by
the Oneida nation of Indians.”

Elkanah Watson, 1792142

As the batteaumen who came west to this place were far more
comfortable in the shallows with a setting pole than on the open
water, passage across this lake was usually not on a direct line, but
safely by the northern shore:

This lake is extremely turbulent and dangerous, - a
small breeze producing a short bobbing sea, and conse¬
quence of shoal water. The batteaumen commonly hug the
north shore, as safest, as well as more direct, from point to
point; which, on that side, project less into the lake, than on
the south side shore.

Elkanah Watson, 1791 143

As the winds of day sometimes calmed with evening, naviga¬
tors often rowed all night to cross to Fort Brewerton, at the west end
of the lake, before dawn. The batteau of Desjardins and his compa¬
ny did not have that option, and, to the consternation of their crew,
initially avoided the relative security of the northern shallows.

Sunday, October 13th. At sunrise, the NW wind, which
had blown all night, had a little subsided, and although
still against us, we resolved to set out, and four other
bateaux, which were stopped at the lower point of the
mouth of the creek, seeing us pass, resolved to follow.

This lake is only nine miles wide by twenty one long,
but it appeared like an ocean to our bateau men, and move¬
ment of the waves frightened them somewhat. We calmed
their apprehensions, and to show our confidence steered
boldly out into the lake towards a point called the Nine Mile
Point, which shortened the distance fully a third.

“...the northwest, north & west winds are the most frequent at that lake,
and that the boats, immediately when they come out of Wood Creek,
make over on the north side of the lake, to the six or the nine mile point,
in order to come under that shore, along which by these winds the water
is perfectly smooth; and can without any danger or interruption, proceed
on their voyage to the outlet on River Onondago. Coming from the outlet
‘or Fort Brewenton’ the same course is pursued by the navigators over
the lake, and commonly go as high up as the nine or six miles points on
the north side, and stretch over to Wood Creek. The sand bar at Wood
Creek is very dangerous for navigators, and the channel of the creek, in
which is four feet water, so narrow and crooked, that it is often missed in
going into Wood Creek.”

George Scriba, 1804144

The prospect at the entrance of the lake is charm¬
ing. Its breadth being only three leagues, we can see both
the northern and southern shores, covered with immense

60

forests , beyond which towards the west the country rises
into high hills, while the eastern shore forming the
entrance of the lake is low and sandy.

Near the head of the lake is a sand bar, upon which
the lake beats violently when the wind is high. This bar,
which is shifting, has only three or four feet of water. As
the west and northwest winds are more benevolent on the
great lakes, the navigation is easier up than down. The
shores are mostly very low, and the slope is so little, that
it is quite difficult to make a landing.

The sand bar which partially blocked passage into the lake was
mentioned by numerous voyagers in this period, even as late as
1810:

At the entrance of the Wood Creek, and about fifty
rods from its mouth, we found a sand-bar forty rods wide.
The shallowest part was two feet deep, and the channel
between three and four feet wide.

DeWitt Clinton, 1810145

Considering that a common batteau, fully loaded, required less
than two feet of water to navigate, and even the huge Durham
boats could pass on that depth of channel, this bar was more dra¬
matic than it was treacherous.

We entered the lake about eight o’clock in the morn¬
ing. At about five hundred toises from the north shore,
and a little before reaching the second point, is a large
sand bank, but the bottom and shores of the lake are usu¬
ally gravelly.

We were drawn a little out of our course to kill a
bear, which Major DeZeng thought that he saw swim¬
ming across the lake, but when we came near, we dis¬
covered that this bear was only a floating tree, whose
black trunk was glistening in the sun on the surface of
the water.

At about eleven miles from the entrance, after row¬
ing four hours and a half, we came to three sandy islands,
with a few pebbles, in the midst of a great number of
aquatic birds, who came thither to lay their eggs, as a
place of safety. These islands are beyond Nine Mile
Point, and from this point we can see the whole contour
of the lake.

The western end of Oneida Lake was characterized by shoals
and low bars, providing nesting sites for birds, and dominated by
two forested islands, larger than the rest:

There is two islands in the lake, the one about 30 the
other about 20 acres. On the westernmost lives a
Frenchman with his family... There is likewise three small
ridges which is just above water and on each is a single tree
- there is no verdure on them. The tree has a pretty effect to
the eyes. In June they are frequented for eggs, which the
gulls and ducks lay here in abundance, below the high
water mark.

James Cockburn, 1792146

Here the party saw evidence of the first tentative settlements
along the interior of Oneida Lake.

Opposite the first two sandy islands, I noticed the
first log house built on the Rosevelt tract, to the right of a
point, with some clearings around it, and at about sixteen
miles from where we started we came to other clearings
begun at the location of Mr. Desvatines, a Frenchman,
who, like another Robinson Crusoe, had two years ago
come and settled on an island in the middle of the lake
with his wife, his children, and his little library. The state
having sold these lands to the Rosevelt Company, M.
Desvatines was dispossessed, and Mr. Scriba gave him a
lot of land in his tract, on the lake shore.

Near this is the future New Rotterdam, now only
consisting of three log houses at the mouth of Scriba
Creek, which it is difficult to enter. M. Pharoux came
near breaking his leg in jumping on a heap of pebbles to
relieve the boat. There is also on the creek at this place a
saw mill.

“On our passage we had a tolerably fair view of Rotterdam, situated on
the right bank of the lake, about six miles above the outlet. The country,
generally, around the lake, and particularly in the neighborhood of
Rotterdam, has the character of being unhealthy, although the situation
of the town appeared to me to be sufficiently elevated. Should the vicini¬
ty of these low and swampy grounds be the only cause of this unhealthy-
ness, I am of opinion that a few hundred dollars expended, in opening the
channel and removing the bar at the head of the outlet, would lower the
lake so far as to drain off the stagnant waters, and thus remove the cause.

“I had an opportunity of examining the whole length of the bar by
wading across it, and found it composed of loose stones and gravel, with
no more than eighteen inches of water. Unless, therefore, there should
prove to be a bed of rocks to impede the undertaking, I am inclined to
believe that twenty men, with the necessary implements, might easily
accomplish it in the course of a month.”

“As the wind would not permit us to stop at Rotterdam, I can only
speak of it from information. It is said to contain about thirty houses, but
mostly deserted, on account of what they call the lake fever, which, I am
told, makes its appearance annually. There is an excellent set of mills
built upon a stream called Bruce’s Creek, which passes just below the
town; and, although the country is extremely fertile, yet, for want of set¬
tlers to raise grain, they have but little employment.

Christian Schultz, 1807147

61

Frenchmans Island

The situation of Desvatines, the man for whom “Frenchman’s Island” was named, was recorded in some detail by
one who visited him in 1792, the year before he abandoned his island in the middle of Oneida Lake:

“Proceeding on one after another through the stately trees, through which we perceived yet the last glances
of the setting sun, we were at once, after a few rods, surprised with an enchanting view, of which it is not in my
power to give you an adequate description... We did see here a luxuriant soil in its virgin bloom - we did see
industry crowned with blessing - we did see here what great things a frail man can perform if he is willing. ...

Our path, gradually increasing in breadth, did lead us to the circumference of a cleared circle, surrounded with
lime-trees; at both sides of the path was planted Indian com, already grown from 4 to 5 feet, while a few plants
towards the middle of this patch were six feet long - and this in the middle of June. A small cottage of a few feet
square stood nearly in the center of this spot. It had a bark covering and to the left of it a similar one, three-
fourth uncovered, and appropriated for a kitchen. Here was the residence of Mr. & Madame de Wattines with
their three children.

“They lived there without servants, without neighbors, without a cow; they lived, as it were, separated from
the world.... Des Wattines sallied forward, and gave us a cordial welcome in his Desmenes. The well educated
man was easily recognized through his sloven dress. Ragged as he appeared, without a coat or hat, his manners
were those of a Gentleman... A female, from whose remaining beauties might be conjectured, how many had
been tarnished by adversity, was sitting in the entrance of his cot. She was dressed in white, in a short gown and
petticoat, garnished with the same stuff; her chestnut brown hair, flung back in ringlets over her shoulders, her
eyes fixed on her darling Camille - a native of this Isle - at her breast; while two children, standing at each side
of her, play’d in her lap. ...Des Wattines introduced us to his spouse. She received us with that easy politeness,
which well educated people seldom loose entirely, and urged, with so much grace, to sit down, that we could not
refuse it without incivility. This couple was now in the second year on this island, and all the improvements,
which we had seen, were the work of Des Wattines’ hands exclusively.

“Our refreshment was a dish of tea, or rather their usual beverage from Venus-hair, which she has collected
and dried, palatable enough indeed, when sweetened with sugar. It was growing dark before we could be per¬
suaded to leave our new companions, who insisted on our staying with them that night; which we declined
reluctantly, but engaged ourselves to return in the morning, and to partake of their break-feast.

“Few trunks, few chairs, an oval table, two neat beds was the principal furniture: a double barreled gun, a
pretty collection of books, chiefly modem Literature in the French language, the chief ornaments of the cottage....

“I awoke with day-light, and made the circuit of this fortunate Island. ..Des Wattines had laid out behind the
cottage a pretty garden, divided by a walk in the middle. The two foremost beds, and rabats, against the house

continued on next page

62

continued from page 62

were covered with a variety of flowers, sweet-williams. Lady-slippers, with a few decaying hyacinths. At the
right hand were Bath-beans, large kidney-beans at poles, cabbage, turnips, peas, salade with that strong scented
herbage which we call keovel (cheovel)... at the left watermelons, canteloups, cucumbers, persil, string peas
with a few of the winter provisions, all in great forwardness, with few or no weeds among them. Behind the
garden a small nursery of apple-trees, which was closed with a patch of luxuriant potatoes, and these again were
joined from both sides by wheat, describing a semi-circle around it.

“All this was the workmanship of Des Wattines’ industry without any assistance, not even of a plow or har¬
row, having no other tool but an axe and an hoe. It is true, it
was all in miniature, but it required nevertheless an
indefatigable industry, to be able to accomplish all this to such
a degree of perfection. When I approached the cottage Des
Wattines was yet employ’d in dragging pretty heavy wood for
fuel towards it, which he chop’t and split, in a short time; and
in less yet the fire was blazing, when he came with a cat-fish
of 16 lb for our break-feast. While he was busily engaged in its
preparation Madame appeared, brought him a handful persil, and
dressed the table. The table cloth was of neat damask, a few
silver spoons and forks, the plates and dishes cream colored,
remnants yet of their former affluence, while the contentment
legible in her eyes, spread a fresh glow over her countenance, and made a deep impression on our hearts, and,
whetted our already keen appetites. ... Salade, roasted and stewed fish, well-baked, warm bread of Indian com,
with good Hyzan tea, which she accepted from us with kindness, soon filled the table. I was seldom better
regaled. The fish was delicious: the sprightly conversation gave a fresh relish to every mouthful we tasted,
and we might have desired to be Inhabitants of that enchanted spot...”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792 148

We stopped at Rotterdam, where Mr. DeZeng had
some business, and slept there, after taking supper with
Mr. Scriba’s men. At eight in the evening, we were
favored by the arrival of Mr. Vanderkemp, a Dutch
Minister, one of the leaders in the revolution of 1787
against the Stadtholder; a revolution which, although
secretly favored by France, was subsequently abandoned
to the Prussian arms, the deplorable state of our finances
having made it impossible for the king to undertake a war
which would have been a serious one, since England
would have joined Prussia in sustaining the Stadtholder.

The leaders of this revolution, after their failure,
mostly fled to America, where they have formed a com¬
pany and bought over a million of acres in the states of
New York and Pennsylvania. Mr. Vanderkemp has locat¬
ed his choice on Oneida Lake and has come in a canoe to
look for stone to use in the buildings he intends to erect
next spring. Fie speaks a little French, and we gave him
a welcome. We failed to see M. Desvatines, our fellow
countryman, as he had gone out hunting with the
Indians, but we reserved this visit until our return.

At Rotterdam almost all the inhabitants were sick
with a fever owing to the shallowness of the lake, and the
immense number of fishes which are thrown ashore and
which, in low water, decay along the marshy banks,
exhaling pestilential and putrid miasms.

By now, Brunei, who had wanted to put kegs of fresh water
aboard in Schenectady, might have begun to feel vindicated. In
spite of the abundance of water all around them, the travelers
were discovering the lack of good drinking water that had been
noted by others the year before:

About eight miles from Fort Brewington is a fine
spring; which is very uncommon in this country - 1 having
seen no good water since I left Fort Stanwix - even the
creeks which run into the lake coming chiefly from
swamps are very indifferent water.

James Cockbum, 1792149

The settlement of New Rotterdam [Constantia] , which the
members of the 1793 expedition were observing in its infancy,
seems not to have established itself as a viable commercial enter¬
prise during this era, as observed seven years later by DeWitt
Clinton:

We dined at Rotterdam, a decayed settlement of
George Scriba’s, eleven miles from the outlet, containing
eight or ten houses, and exhibiting marks of a premature
growth. There are mills on a small creek, and while at din¬
ner, our men speared several fish in it..

DeWitt Clinton, 1810150

63

The French party probably enjoyed their stay here overnight,
and the opportunity to observe the expanse of water before them
after two weeks of tedious river navigation.

Monday, October 14th. At half past six we left Rotterdam
with a pleasant sky, and in half an hour came to an island
partly cleared by M. Desvatines. There were here two
islands, of about thirty and forty acres, of excellent soil,
finely timbered, and forming in the lake a charming
object of view. It was a very desirable location and our
countrymen had made a good choice. The lake is every¬
where shallow along the shore, and the banks are lined
with grass and rushes wherever the water is not more
than two feet deep. Before coming to the Desvatines
islands, we noticed one very low, perfectly circular, and
with only a single tree in the middle.

“We left Bruce’s creek on Friday evening about six, the sky was serene
and delightful: - a soft breeze curled the waves, and fringed them with
white, while the sun, sinking towards the west, beautified the whole
scenery. I did not witness such a grand or majestic sight, since I crossed
the Atlantic. It must be seen, before it can be fully appraised... In pro¬
portion that we penetrated deeper in the Lake the beauty of this diversi¬
fied prospect was more and more enhanced - the islands, the shores, the
woods, the mountains obtruding themselves to our sight, seemed to vie
with other for the preference. At length the slight breeze increased; ere
long a brisk wind arose from the west: the increased undulated motion
with the white capped waves appalled our raw hands, whose trembling
limbs and pale visages too clearly betray’d their fear of a threatening
shipwreck. We endeavoured to assuage it, as the wind was steady. If we
had any apprehension it arose from their inexpertness, from their unsub¬
dued tenor, from the knowledge, that two or three waves would have been
sufficient to sink our deep loaded canoe. We conquered nevertheless, and
they rowed on with redoubled alacrity.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792151

“One Tree Island,” noted as a curiosity by the journalists in
1793, remained a landmark for travelers on Oneida Lake:

About four miles from the outlet we passed two
islands on our left, sufficiently high for cultivation, and
containing about one hundred acres, but destitute of inhab¬
itants.

We also passed a little spot called One Tree Island,
which serves the navigators as a land-mark, and, at a dis¬
tance, has the appearance of a ship under sail.

There are likewise two small sandy islands, general¬
ly covered with gulls; the boatmen sometime stop here to
look for eggs, which, in the season, are found in consider¬
able plenty.

In passing these islands we ran aground on the top
of what appeared to me to be a sunken island, with a very
small flat surface; it was an entire rock, not more than
seven paces across; and, on every side, we found more
than thirty feet water, that being the length of the cord I
sounded with.

Christian Schultz, 1807 152

Rarely did these western islands escape the notice of those
navigating this inland route. The sighting of “Frenchman’s
Island” signaled a successful crossing of Oneida Lake and the
approach to its outlet at Fort Brewerton:

Independently of several collections of sand and
reeds, which can hardly be termed islands, and of an islet
about the middle of the lake, which has a single tree, and
looks at a distance like a ship under sail, there are two
islands, about two miles from the outlet, half a mile from
the south shore of the lake. They are within a short distance
from each other. One island contains fourteen acres, and
the other, called Frenchman’s Island, twenty-seven acres.

A person can wade from one to the other; and bears, in
swimming the lake, frequently stop here to rest. These
islands belong to the State.

DeWitt Clinton, 18 10 153

“I never witnessed a more charming sight: It is indeed exquisitely beau¬
tiful: the sun in its full splendour at the western horizon, gilding the
enlightened clouds - an extensive sheet of water, in an undulating motion
- two Islands towards the south in front, which we were now approach¬
ing, a small opening between these, through which we had a view of the
southern coast, one single, covered with grass, and with one tree adorned
rock, behind which in perspective appeared the country of the Oneydas
with the Canoserago Hills.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792154

The French party noted, to the south, the stream that bounded
the Oneida lands.

On the shore of the lake, opposite, is the mouth of
the Canaseraga Creek, a stream of considerable size that
separates the Oneida Reservation from the lands they
have released to the State. The shore is here more elevat¬
ed, and the soil is excellent.

During this period the stream opposite Rotterdam was often
called “Canaseraga”, even though later termed the Chittenango
Creek.

The crossing of this vast inland lake was nearing an end.

From the Desvatines islands we can see the outlet of
the lake and the site of Fort Brewington, which the
English built to guard this pass. At this place the west
winds meeting the waters of the lake have formed a large
bar, which only allows bateaux to pass close to the site of
the fort. This pass is about eight miles from New
Rotterdam, and, as the water was very low, we found it
quite difficult to get out of the lake into the Onondaga
River. The bar is formed of pebbles.

64

CHAPTER NINE

The Oneida River

65

Just as the Royal Blockhouse at Wood Creek served as the focal
point for early activity at the inlet to Oneida Lake, so did the
fortification of Fort Brewerton for the outlet into the Oneida
River. Established also in 1759, this small military outpost, cou¬
pled with a more favorable situation, catalyzed settlement at an
early date.

The first white resident of Oswego County was
Oliver Stevens, who located at Fort Brewerton in 1789,
began trading with the Indians, and kept a rude tavern for
the accommodation of boatmen. In 1791, Major Ryal
Bingham settled in the vicinity of the fort, on land leased
of a Mr. Kaats, who had procured the title. He, however,
remained but two years, while Stevens became a perma¬
nent resident.

Crisfield Johnson, 1877 155

Voyagers stopping here on their way west were often surprised
at the quality of hospitality provided, particularly at a location so
far beyond the frontier:

We arrived at fort Brewerton about noon, situated on
the North-western comer of the Lake. ... I was highly grat¬
ified with excellent bread and butter, feasted on milk for
my beverage, and purchased two pints of it, which we car¬
ried to our Bateau. The situation alone renders this spot of
considerable consequence; and its importance must be
heightened as soon the backlands are settled, and the navi¬
gation of the western waters shall be carried to that sum¬
mit, to which it eventually must ascend. The soil is clay, of
which a large quantity of brick was made

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792156

While the French party stopped here and availed themselves of
breakfast, they offer no comment as to the quality of the experi¬
ence, except to note in some detail the methods used by these set¬
tlers to procure and store their produce.

A log house occupies the site of the fort, and its
occupant has piled up stones and gravel in a triangular
form, almost entirely across the river, and at the point is
a opening where there is fastened a willow basket called
an eel weier. These structures almost entirely destroy the
navigation, and although forbidden, yet in these wilds
there are none to see that the laws are carried into effect.

We landed at this log house, and after breakfast
went to see a mill built after the Indian fashion. It was the
trunk of a tree hollowed out like a mortar, with the pestle
hung from a pole as a counterpoise, and with this simple
machine one could grind maize with very little fatigue.

The shelters for their corn and pumpkins (a kind of
Indian gourd) are not less simple. They are long cribs,
made of poles as large as the arm, laid one on another two
or three feet high, with short poles notched at the ends, and
about an inch space open between them. Into these they
throw their corn or pumpkins, and then cover them with
wide pieces of bark, while the snow completes the winter
covering. Thus their grain, open to the air, does not heat,
and is no more exposed to the squirrels, etc, than it would
be in granaries. But as for these they have none.

An early form of samp mortar.

“Indian corn... was their all, and it was dried as they best could, in the sun
when it shone and at other times by their fires. Thus prepared, it was
pounded in a samp-mortar, of which almost every settler had a specimen,
formed by burning out the end of a log.”

Pomeroy Jones, 1851157

The obstruction noted in this journal at the outlet of the lake
consisted of an extensive gravel bar, compounded by one or two
eel weirs. Motivated by a desire to improve the value of his lands
at Rotterdam, which were being offered for sale to potential set¬
tlers, George Scriba appealed to Schuyler’s company in 1803 to
add the removal of this bar to their efforts to improve Wood
Creek:

By removing this bar or natural dam across the outlet
at Fort Bruenton will be the means to lower the lake from
five to six feet; consequently it would give a greater cur¬
rent in Wood Creek, and be the means by which the sand
bars constantly forming therein would be removed, for
want of current to carry it through into deeper water, or into
the lake; and there is no doubt this experiment would prove
a great relief to the navigators in Wood Creek.

The sand bars which are therein formed by the
swelling of the lake in the spring & autumn: there comes
by the different streams of water which empty themselves
into that lake, six times the quantity of water into the lake
than can go out at the time of these freshets, particularly
when the snow goes off in the spring.

The swelling of the lake backens the water from 8 to
10 miles up that creek, and makes it a perfect still dead
water, in which no current can be observed, and overflows
at the same time an immense tract of land on both sides of
Wood Creek. By a mark at the Lake Oneida, the lake was
eight feet higher for several weeks in the month of April
during the freshets when the snow went off, then it was in
August & September: the sand banks thus are formed at the
time of these freshets, there being no current to move the
sand, and the outlet of the lake, being dammed by a natur¬
al dam or bar, requires long time in dry weather, by which
the water coming into the lake diminishes, and before the
lake can come to its level, & the very slow falling of the
water in that lake, thus leaves all the sand carried down¬
wards in Wood Creek in it, and obstructs the navigation in
the season, when the water has diminished therein.

George Scriba, 1804158

66

Fort Brewerton Landing

Oliver Stevens, the first white settler in the area of the Oneida Lake outlet, estab¬
lished himself at the site of the abandoned British fort in 1789; his homestead
being observed a few years later:

“We stopped at Fort Brompton [Brewerton] at the entrance of the lake. This
structure also is surrounded with pallisadoes, erected last year; it stands at the foot
of an ancient entrenchment, constructed by the English during the American war,
on an advantageous ground, commanding the entrance of the lake. The work was
thrown up in a zigzag figure; but from the remains no distinct idea can be formed,
how the cannon could be pointed to advantage. All the antiquities of this country
consist in the remains of forts, built in the wars of 1776 or 1756. Fancy must live
in future ages, to find occupation in this infant country; past ages can exist here
only for generations not yet bom.”

“The proprietor of the house had gone to Rotterdam three days before. A girl
of fourteen was left behind to take care of the house, and of a little brother,
who was sick, and whom she actually nursed with a solicitude truly affecting.

The girl, poor thing, did all she could for our accommodation, but nothing was to
be procured. We should have been obliged to content ourselves with a few small
potatoes, which we pulled up in the fields, if the Indians, who were encamped on
the opposite bank of the river, had not brought us a large pike, which they had
caught in the morning with a harpoon.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795 159
Almost twenty years after its initial settlement, the situation at this place had changed very little:

“This night we slept at Steven’s, at the outlet of the lake, nine miles by land and eleven by water from
Rotterdam. Here commences Onondaga or Oneida River, the only outlet of the lake, about as large as the
mouth of Wood Creek. The bars at the outlet are rocky, wide, difficult to remove, and so shallow that a horse
can easily pass over them. There are two eel weirs here, in which many are caught. Stevens has lived in this
place, which is in the town of Constantia, eighteen years; has rented it for seventeen years, at $75 a year. He
has no neighbors within four miles on this side of the river. On the other side is the town of Cicero, in which
there are several settlements. This is a clean house, in which we were as well accommodated as the situation of
the country would admit... Steven’s house is one quarter of a mile from the mouth of the lake. Deer come close
up to it. We saw an adder and another snake sunning themselves on the ramparts of Fort Brewser, in the rear of
the house. This was erected in the French War, was a regular work, ditch and bastions, all covering about an
acre. This must have been an important pass to defend, and would now be an excellent site for a town.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810160

The natural gravel bar that had accumulated here over the centuries created a shoal which virtually blocked the outlet
of the lake. George Scriba, concerned with the state of navigation in the opening years of the nineteenth century, suggest¬
ed its removal:

“I would advise to take away the bar at the outlet of the Lake Oneida, which place must be improved on
account of the difficulty the boats meet with there to get over it: this bar is about half a quarter of a mile in
length; this natural dam or bar consists of loose stones of which the people make in every direction eel wares.”

George Scriba, 1804161

However, the very stone weirs which Scriba complained about suggested to Elkanah Watson a solution to the prob¬
lem. He recommended “... enlarging the scale of the eel ware at the west entrance of the said lake...” which would raise
the water over this shoal. In fact, from this particular case he extrapolated a solution for all the problems of shoal water
navigation along the lower Mohawk:

“Should the rapid be not very extensive, some contrivance like the eel ware at the west end of the Oneida
would probably answer the purpose. This raises a head of water sufficient to enable loaded boats to pass out
and into the lake, which is effected by the simple and cheap expedient of throwing up loose stone obliquely
from each shore in the bed of the river. At each of the terminations a sufficient passage is left open where the
water rushes through forming a channel way...”

Elkanah Watson, 1800162

the mouth of the Oneida River
shows the ruins of the fort and
the house of Oliver Stevens.

67

The settlers here, however, might have argued against the
removal of this gravel bar and its associated fish trap - a potential
source of food and income. The shoal water created by this bar,
coupled with its location at the outlet of a lake, produced the ideal
situation in which to build a stone weir:

Eels are found here in the greatest abundance, and are
the finest and largest that ever I saw. They have an inven¬
tion for taking them similar to our eel-pots, but made very
large, and requiring no bait. These are always set in a
strong current, either at the inlet or outlet of a lake, or on
some swift part of the stream upon the rivers. Two ridges
of stones are piled up in the manner before described on the
Mohawk river, at the lower end of which the pot or basket
is set. I was present when one of the baskets, which had
been set over night, was taken up; it filled two barrels, and
the greater part of the eels weighed from two to three
pounds each.

Christian Schultz, 1807163

Such structures, although of ancient native origin, were still
common on the inland waterways in the 1790s, often maintained,
as here, by the newly arrived homesteaders. These fisheries pro¬
vided an immediate level of subsistence, specialized though it
was, that was usually unrivaled for ease of harvest and richness
of diet:

Fort Brewerton, which we reached at four in the
afternoon, was to us a delightful sight. Capt. Bingham was
from home on the salmon fishery; and Capt. (Stevens) with
the women was on a visit to the island. His eldest daugh¬
ter, nevertheless, a smart young girl, prepared us a good
supper - a bass of two pounds; a dish with stewed eels; with
fresh bread and butter. Our breakfast was congenial, hav¬
ing secured two capital eels, with a pot of milk and rice...

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792164

“The eel of the Oneyda Lake is equal to the best of the Holland market,
and far surpasses every kind which I have ever tasted here, in size, in fat¬
ness, in tenderness of the fish.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792165

As one moved west, one encountered more of these fisheries
being managed seasonally by the Native American inhabitants,
who came to sections of the rivers where no white settlers had yet
established a foothold. Such a place, perhaps the most concen¬
trated Native American fishing station on the inland route to
Oswego, was passed on the morning of October 14th by the
French batteau, floating down the “Onondaga” (Oneida) River:

The Onondaga River is about as wide as the Seine
in Paris, but is no deeper than the Mohawk, and its nav¬
igation obstructed by bars. In some places we meet rapids
quite difficult to pass, especially at a dyke of gravel made
by the Indians for an eel trap. Here on the right bank are
the cabins which they occupy in the fishing season. They
are built of poles supported by crotched posts, covered
and sided with bark.

This complex of weirs stood in the crook of the Oneida River
at Caughdenoy, and apparently had been well established by the
mid-eighteenth century. This location eventually became part of
the fisheries of the white settlement that grew up there. Some of
the eel weirs that had served continuously in this spot for genera¬
tions may have stood on the ruins of ones built here in prehistoric
times.

In passing down the Oneida the year before, Vanderkemp
noted the rift at Caughdenoy. He used, as was common in that
time, the name “Onondago” to apply to the linked Oneida and
Oswego rivers:

We arrived in the Onondago river,
which even as the fish-creek, has general¬
ly very steep banks - more so however on
the west-side. We passed sometimes,
through our inexpertness, large rifts with
difficulty. It was said here was an
ancient Indian eel-wear - by which this
natural obstruction in the bed of the
river had been increased. The stream
was otherwise very placid, and our
progress of course, easy.

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792 166

Traveling late in the season, the French
party was exposed to bouts of severe weather,
which they noted without further comment.

We encountered quite a storm of
sleet from eleven o’clock till noon. The
lands on the right, belonging to Rosevelt,
are low and swampy, the timber poor, and
the soil fit only for pasturage. Those on

A native cabin recorded in 1791 of the type in evidence west of Oneida Lake.

68

the left, belonging to the military tract, are about of the
same quality .

The bottom of the channel is covered with broken
and angular pebbles, and the river is full of fish. The
shores that are higher are sandy and covered only with
pines and other evergreens, which indicate a poor soil.

At sunset, we landed on the right bank, near a little
hill, where some trees had been formerly burned, to select
a place for our tent, and cleared away the underbrush
that had already sprung up.

Mohawk River eel weirs typical of the late 18th century, mapped in 1803.

Given the heavily forested banks of the inland waterways this
far west of the frontier, travelers had to rely on their own camping
gear for their lodging. Often old Indian clearings provided a con¬
venient spot. But the continuous selection of favorable spots by
boatmen ended up creating inviting riverside rest areas, noted as
early as 1768:

...I slept that night... at a camping place, as it is called, or a
spot cleared in the woods by the side of the river; such
places travelers have made in the course of time, and are to
be met with at every 10 miles distance.

John Lees, 1768167

Inviting as these camping sites might be, one was advised to
stay close by the river:

A sudden shower compelled us to land about three
miles below fort Brewerton, where we encamped that night
- being resolved if the rain might abate, to take a view of
the land.

The soil is rich, with a great variety of luxuriant trees,
a black loom with a mixture of fine sand of the same color,
many inches deep, then clay - the timber majestic, spread¬
ing its branches and foliage, beach, oak, maple, black ash,
with here and there a pine and hemlock.

I had ventured, rather imprudently perhaps, a few
miles in the woods: the beauty of the stop had lured me

deeper and deeper, till at last I knew not from where I
came, or wither I went: the sun being set, I had lost this
unerring guide - my only refuge was now my pocket-com¬
pass, by which I again discovered the course, which I had
to steer towards the river. This nevertheless would have
brought me two. miles below my encampment, had not
DeZeng, apprehensive of this issue, sent out the boys to
hunt the straggler.

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792 168

Although tempted to look into the forest beyond the edges of
their camp, the members of the expedition had the good sense to
remain close to the river, which also provided for their sumptuous
dinner.

Behind the hill, at the foot of which we were
encamped, is a little valley and other hills. Our men
caught some catfish, thus named from the long barbs on
their heads like the whiskers of a cat’s face. Its fins are
armed with a spine, which they raise or relax at will. This
fish, named le Mai in ichthyology of the Encyclopedia,
grow to a great size in the lakes, but is here of moderate
size, weighing from three to four pounds. Its flesh is del¬
icate, fat, and flavored like that of the carp and the eel.

We also caught some tench, perch, and suckers, a kind of
carp. We caught eight fish in two hours, with only two
lines, and finished by making an excellent supper at the
river’s expense.

“These waters abound in catfish, salmon, bass, eel, and corperals, all very
fine, and fat. They are caught in eel weires, formed by Indians thus: - Two
walls of loose stones are thrown up, obliquely descending across the river,
to a point, - where they are taken, at a small opening, in baskets, or eel
pots. Salmon are caught at the Oswego falls in the night, by spearing
them as they vault up the falls, by the aid of torch light.”

Elkanah Watson, 1791 169

Tuesday, October 15th. Left at seven o’clock. The river
is often rapid and its bottom gravelly, its banks lined
with rushes and aquatic plants - valerian, Golden-
sheaf, and the cardinal flower - whose blossoms had a
very pleasant effect. The shores, although low, soon rise
into banks beyond.

Passing this way a few years later, Christian Schultz warned of
being too much distracted from the demands of navigation by the
beauty of the passage:

In descending the Onondaga River from the outlet,
the land is low on both sides for about five miles; the right
shore then begins gradually to rise and improve in appear¬
ance, while the left still continues low for a considerable
distance further. This is a pleasant, and, in some places, a
rapid stream, increasing to the breadth of one hundred and
twenty-five yards; its length, according to its meanders
from the Oneida Lake, to its junction with the Seneca and
Oswego Rivers at Three River Point, is twenty miles.

69

Overland Travel

Heading due north earlier that summer [1793] to attend a
Town meeting about 20 miles away [Pulaski], Oliver
Stevens left the security of his home at Fort Brewerton
to attempt an overland journey:

“He started off early in the morning, with his gun in
hand, and a knapsack of provisions on his back. There was no
road nor scarcely a path; he relied mainly on his skill as a
woodsman, and his knowledge of the wanderings of the sun
to guide him safely through his journey. He traveled on,
unconscious of harm, till near the middle of the afternoon,
when he found himself in the vicinity of a pack of hungry
wolves. By their howling, he was aroused not only to a sense
of his danger, but to the fact that he had lost his way, and that
he had no means of recovering it. He set forward with vigor,
in hope of coming out at a ‘clearing’ in the vicinity of the
place of his destination, but all to no purpose; the more he
exerted himself, the more he became convinced of the peril of
his situation. The wolves drew nearer and nearer, and seemed
by their boldness, to be meditating an attack. At length, one
bolder than his companions, a large black one, advanced to
within a few paces of him, upon which he fired and killed him dead. The scent of the blood of the dead wolf seemed to
increase the voracity of the survivors, and for a time he thought he should in turn be slain.

“Nothing daunted, he stood at bay looking them firmly in the eye, and after a while, they retired to a respectful dis¬
tance, sitting around on their haunches as if holding a council of war. During this cessation of hostilities, Mr. Steven’s
struck a fire and kindled it, reloaded his gun, and sallied forth, dragging the dead wolf by the heels to his fiery fortress. At
this stage of the war, it seemed as if the fury of the wolves was ungovernable; they came very near, growling and snap¬
ping their teeth, in the greatest anger. He cast burning brands among them, and finally they dispersed. Upon this, he added
more fuel to the fire, got up a bright light, and began to feel somewhat secure.

“His next business was to secure the skin of his fallen foe, which was soon effected. By this time it became quite
dark. A quantity of fuel was gathered. Here the solitary wanderer stood all night, not daring to refresh himself with sleep,
amid the din and howlings of the hungry wolves. Towards morning he was relieved from his anxiety by the retreat of the
wolves, who left, and disturbed him no more.

“He now prepared a hasty meal at the fire, partook of it, and concluded to retrace his steps. Packing his wolf skin, he
proceeded homeward. The sun rose to meridian, and still he traveled on; night came, and for ought he could tell, he was
no nearer home than when he started in the morning. Being weary with his day’s journey, he again kindled a fire, laid
himself down to rest, and slept soundly till morning. At early dawn he again set forth in quest of home, and about ten
o’clock in the morning, to his indescribable surprise and joy, discovered the British flag flying from the fort at Oswego.

“The officers of the garrison, to whom he related his adventure, treated him with great kindness. With them he spent
the remainder of the day, and next morning set out with a light heart for home. The day following, being the fifth from his
departure, he safely returned to the bosom of his family, who had already become somewhat alarmed for his safety.

“The bounty then paid by the State for a full grown wolf, was forty dollars, which he in due time received. This in
some degree proved a balm for his sufferings; but for which, he would not again encounter the danger he had so greatly
risked.”

Joshua Clark, 1849 170

It was the mortal risk of land travel in these western regions, as well as the extreme inconvenience, that conspired to
keep travelers within their boats and on the waterways. Even as late as 1810, overland travel through this region was dis¬
couraged. In describing the route west from Fort Brewerton to Three Rivers, one journalist reported:

“This distance of twenty miles by water, is lessened to seven by the path on land. I say path, if path there is, for wag¬
gon never rolled its wheels through those impervious woods.”

Harry Crosswell, 1810171

70

The navigation of this river is somewhat dangerous,
on account of several rocky shoals, and the rapidity of its
current; it, therefore, requires a particular knowledge of
these places, in order to take a boat down safely.

Christian Schultz, 1807 172

In the early morning hours of October 15th, the batteau of the
expedition glided down toward Three River Point - an oasis of activ¬
ity in the midst of what must have seemed a tractless wilderness.

At about eight miles from where we started is an
island of considerable size, and covered with trees. A lit¬
tle beyond is the mouth of Seneca River, where there is a
clearing and a good log house of squared timber, fastened
with dove-tail joints.

Here we breakfasted with Major Bingham, the
owner, who we hired as a pilot, to conduct us down the
rapids that are somewhat dangerous to one not acquaint¬
ed with the channel.

The Seneca River is the water route leading to the
Genesee Country, and to all the western country now set¬
tling, and it is much navigated, as it leads into five lakes
of considerable size. The Seneca Lake is also quite near
to the Genesee River. By this stream all the salt made on
the Onondaga Lake is brought down. This place is called
“ Three River Point” , although there are only two, but the
union of the Seneca and Onondaga rivers here takes the
name of the Oswego River.

This 1792 map shows the navigation between
Fort Breweton and Three River Point (Barkers).

Brewerton, or we might have arrived at this omnium
gatherum earlier. There was no other house, except at
many miles distance; and here, in spite of fleas, bugs, filth,
and drunken boatmen, we staid all night.

Harry Croswell, 1811174

Arrival at Three River Point brought boatmen to the great
crossroads of inland navigation. Behind was the return route to
Albany, via the Mohawk. To the left one could run up the Seneca
River to the Finger Lakes, and, most significantly, to the entrance
into Onondaga Lake - the source of the salt being shipped
throughout the Northeast in this era. And to the right, the combi¬
nation of the Oneida and Seneca rivers created the Oswego River
- passageway to the Great Lakes.

“Three River Point is most eligibly situated on the left bank, at the con¬
fluence of the Onondaga, Seneca and Oswego Rivers. Although no town
is laid out, as this place at present contains but a single house, yet, I do
not hesitate to say, the time will shortly arrive when it will be the site of
one of the most respectable inland towns in this part of the state... as it
must always command a great share of trade, for all the goods bound to
or from Oswego must pass by Three River Point, either in ascending or
descending, exclusive of the whole trade of the Genesee Country by the
Seneca River, as well as the salt trade to the upper country, which must
also pass this Point on its way to the Mohawk. It has, likewise, nothing to
apprehend from any rivalship from settlements on either of the two oppo¬
site points, as neither of these possess a sufficient elevation, being subject
to be inundated by every rise of the river.”

Christian Schultz, 1807173

Although perhaps the most advantageous location for the
establishment of a way station for boats, this place had but one
house, and that less than inviting:

The aversion to lodging in public houses in the wilderness,
expressed in many travelers’ journals, appears to have been univer¬
sal, and was applied to that at Three Rivers Point in particular:

All these people lay ill in the room where we were to
dine and sleep; for it was the only room in the house. The
newcomers, who brought with them a very tight tent,
declared that they would rather pass the night under this
tent, than breathe the noxious air of this house. Mr.
Van Allen, struck with a dread of a relapse of the ague,
ordered his tent, which consisted only of his sail, to be
pitched on the banks of the river; and we wrapped our¬
selves up, as usual, in our blankets.

The spot, on which the inn stands, belongs to Squire
Bingham, who also possesses a few acres contiguous to the
building, and a comfortable quantity of land at some dis¬
tance from it. All these lands would be tolerably good, but
for their marshy, low, and flat situation, which exposes
them to frequent inundations. The water is abominable;
and the air bad.

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795175

In spite of its marginal reputation, Three River Point became
the place to wait while arranging for a pilot to guide one’s boat
down the Oswego River:

Next day about three in the afternoon we reached
three-River Point, eighteen miles from fort Brewerton...
One Barker lived at the east side of this point, whose chief
employment was to conduct the Bateaux over the falls in
Oswego River. He might have been independent, had he

By a winding navigation of eighteen or twenty miles,
we came to Three River Point. It is a place! Pray heaven I
ne’er may see its like again! It was late before we left Fort

71

Three River Point

CCTfc efore sundown we reached Three-River Point. This place derives its
l-£ name from the confluence of the Oneida and Seneca Rivers, and the
JLJ river formed by this junction, is then denominated Oswego River. It
lies in Cicero, on the south side of the Oneida River, is part of a Gospel lot,
and an excellent position for a town. All the salt-boats from the Springs, and
the boats from the Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, rendezvous at this place; and we
found the house, which is kept by one Magie, crowded with noisey drunken
people, and the landlord, wife, and son were in the same situation. The house
being small and dirty, we took refuge in a room in which were two beds and a
weaver’s loom, a beaufet and dressers for tea utensils, and furniture, and there
we had a very uncomfortable collation.

“Col. Porter erected his tent and made his fire on the hill, where he was
comfortably accommodated with the young gentlemen. I reconnoitered up
stairs; but in passing to the bed, I saw several dirty, villainous-looking fellows
in their bunks, and all placed in the same garret. I retreated from the disgusting
scene, and left Gen. North, Mr. De Witt, and Mr. Geddes, in the undisputed
possession of the Attic beds. The Commodore and I took possession of the
beds below; but previous to this, we were assured by an apparently decent girl,
that they were free from vermin, and that the beds above were well stored with
them. Satisfied with this assurance, we prepared ourselves for a comfortable
sleep, after a fatiguing day.

“But no sooner were we lodged, than our noses were assailed by a
thousand villainous smells, meeting our olfactory nerves in all directions, the
most potent exhalation arising from boiled pork, which was left close to our
heads. Our ears were invaded by a commingled noise of drunken people in
an adjacent room, of crickets in the hearth, of rats
in the walls, of dogs under the beds, by the
whizzing of musquitoes about our heads,
and the flying of bats about the room. The
women in the house were continually pushing open the door, and pacing the room
for plates, and knives, and spoons; and the dogs would avail themselves of such
opportunities to come in under our beds. Under these circumstances sleep was
impractical; and, after the family had retired to rest, we heard our companions
above rolling about restless in their beds. This we set down to the credit of
the bugs, and we hugged ourselves on our superior comforts. We were, however,
soon driven up by the annoyance of vermin. On lighting a candle and examin¬
ing the beds, we found that we had been assailed by an army of bed-bugs,
aided by a body of light infantry in the shape of fleas, and a regiment of
musquitoe cavalry. I retreated from the disgusting scene and immediately
dressed myself, and took refuge in a segar.

“Leaving the Commodore to his meditations, I went out on the Point. The
moon was in its full orb and blaze of unclouded majesty. Here my feelings were
not only relieved, but my mind was elevated by the scenery before me. The ground on
which I stood was elevated; below me flowed the Oneida River, and on my left the Seneca
poured its waters, and uniting together they formed a majestic stream. Flocks of white geese were sporting on the water -
a number of boats lying moored to the banks - a white tent erected on the right, enlivened by a blazing fire - an Indian
hut on the opposite bank, displaying the red man of the forest, and his family, preparing for the sports of the day - the
bellowing of thousands of frogs in the waters, and the roaring of bloodhounds, in pursuit of deer and foxes, added to the
singularity of the scene. My mind became tranquilized, and I availed myself of a vacant mattress in the tent, and enjoyed
a comfortable sleep of two hours.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810176

72

possessed virtue and strength of mind sufficient to take
advantage of his situation.

Every Bateau bound to or coming from the Genesee
- Onondago - Oswego - Catalaqui and Niagara stops here,
and their crews would often deem it a happiness, could
they there be supplied with refreshments of bread, butter
and milk - of rum and gin. He knew scarce the first, so sel¬
dom did he see these articles, and the latter he wanted for
himself exclusively.

A small patch of com promised a good crop and a
similar of summer wheat - which he said to have sown the
first of May - had branched out its large ears.

We hired Barker at five shillings a day to bring us
over the fall, and stay with us till our return.

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792 177

Whether one secured a guide at Three River Point, or
embarked on one’s own devices to descend the Oswego River,
the challenges began immediately after departure:

Two miles below this is a rapid called Three River
Rift, and very dangerous for batteaux in low water.

James Cockbum, 1792178

The navigation route west in 1794, from “Gilbert’s” at Canada Creek junction (upper right comer), down the Wood Creek channel improved
by the WILNC in 1793 to “Jackson’s Tavern” at Oneida Lake, and along the north shore of Oneida Lake
to “Stephen’s Tavern” at the entrance to the Oneida River (far left).

73

CHAPTER TEN

The Oswego River

75

Stopping at Three River Point only long enough to have break¬
fast and arrange for a pilot, bringing the number in the bat-
teau to eight, Pharoux, Desjardins, and Brunei started down
the Oswego River on the last leg of their inland journey to
Lake Ontario.

Soon after starting we saw a bear with two young
crossing the river, and we hastened to overtake them by
rowing, while three of us landed with axes and guns to
intercept them, but they escaped.

Encounters with bears in this region were frequent. This party
was fortunately spared the disaster that befell two other
Frenchmen passing up the Oneida River that same summer:

As Mr. Stevens sat at dinner with his family, he was
interrupted by a man, who came running to the door,
almost breathless and dripping with water; stammered out
with a tremulous voice, that he and his companion had
been attacked by a bear in the river, and driven from their
boat. He feared the bear would kill his friend, and wished
Mr. Stevens to go instantly with his gun and kill the bear.

He started at once, reprimed his gun, and hastened
with all dispatch to the scene of the disaster. When arrived,
they found the remaining man on shore, wet through and
through, moaning in the bitterest anguish the hardness
of his lot.

The fact was; that as the two were pro¬
ceeding up the river, the bear at the same time
attempted to swim across. Upon seeing the
bear, the boatmen resolved to have some sport
and capture him. They rowed along side and
aimed a blow at Bruin’s head, which he evad¬
ed, and before they could recover themselves,
scrambled over the side of the boat and drove
the astonished Frenchmen into the river. They
were forced to make a virtue of Necessity, and
one ran for help, while the other watched the
boat and its new occupant.

On the arrival of Mr. Stevens at the scene
of action, his bearship was majestically seated
at the stem, calmly surveying the scene, and
quietly floating down the current, as undis¬
turbed as a king upon his throne. A shot from
Mr. Stevens’ rifle bereft the monarch of his titles and his
life at once. The boatmen swam to the boat and rowed up
to the landing. When the prize was dressed, it was found to
exceed three hundred pounds in weight.

Joshua Clark, 1849 179

“The Oswego River is about twenty-four miles long. The fall from Three-
River Point to Oswego, is about 112 feet. It contains a great many rapids,
which I shall specify. Considering that it is constituted by the Oneida and
Seneca Rivers, which proceed from the Oneida, the Onondaga, the
Cayuga, the Seneca, the Canandaigua, the Oswego, and the Skeneatelas
Lakes, it is surprising that it is not larger. It is about the width of the
Mohawk, and appears like that river reversed. The river scenery is
delightful. The large and luxuriant trees on its banks form an agree¬
able shade, and indicate great fertility.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810180

Not being accosted by the bear they saw, the party continued
downriver.

The river is here quite wide, and we descended
rapidly, the current bearing the bateau along with force.
Near this we had to pass a second rapid, between two
rows of stones piled up by the Indians for an eel weier,
where the opening at the point is very narrow, and the
water presses through with violence. On the right bank
we noticed the fishing cabins of the Indians. At the open¬
ing of this passage they place their nets and take thou¬
sands of fish as they ascend from the lake or return, at
the two fishing seasons.

Here was located the rapid known as “Three River Rift”
[Phoenix], which had been, since prehistoric times, a favored fish¬
ing station of the Oneidas and their predecessors. It was a site of
much activity in the season of fish migration:

Here were the Onondagos collected in large numbers
- some fishing - some smoking in their huts - others from
time to time arriving and passing us in their bark canoes,
with much art constructed - so light and easily manageable
that a squaw with her little daughter gained on us, and left
us soon behind her by her velocity.

Apparently Three River Rift was dangerous enough to warrant
a pilot, notwithstanding the Oswego Falls to follow, as the one
hired by the French party left after passage below that and the fol¬
lowing rapid.

A little further down is a third rapid, but not more
difficult than those of the Mohawk, and here our pilot left
us. We noticed at the bottom of the water some little heaps
of pebbles perfectly round, and in great quantity, the
work of that industrious fish, the sucker, which there
deposits its eggs, safe from the attack of its enemies the
eels and pike.

These curious constructions drew the attention of several nav¬
igators in this period, none of which correctly identified the cause:

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792 181

76

We observed in many places on this river, small hills of
stones, - which, we are told, are thrown up by salmon, where
they cast their spawn, to protect them from other fish.

Elkanah Watson, 1791 182

Adrian Vanderkemp, passing this same spot in 1792, came
closest to identifying the correct type of fish:

I had now an opportunity of examining and witness¬
ing the truth of what the Baron had told me before of the
curious manner by which the chubs (Tziobs) hide their
eggs. They deposit these along the rivers of Oswego and
Onondago on shallow spots, and cover these afterwards
with small pebbles, heaped in a conical form, some what
below the surface of the water, while others were promi¬
nent above it.

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792 183

It was, in fact, the Fallfish, a relative of the chub, that pro¬
duced these pebble heaps. But even years later, the debate on their
origins continued:

In Oswego and Seneca Rivers, and I think in Oneida
River, considerable circular collections or piles of gravel
are to be found, in the water near the shore, and sometimes
on the margin of the water. Many are to be seen at very
short distances, and they are evidently the work of some
animal, exhibiting uniformity and design. As they appear
the latter end of June, or beginning of July, when there are
no freshets, and when the salmon and bass ascend, it is
supposed they are erected by fish. By some they are
called bass-heaps, and by others they are imputed to
lamprey eels.

DeWitt Clinton, 1810184

The batteau, without pilot, continued on the river, running
down with the current.

river. The pickerel often weigh here thirty pound - pike is
of a similar size. We took catfish of four span and a half -
perch too; of which we obtained a few, is here in abun¬
dance.

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792185

Early the next morning, the boatmen started down toward their
inevitable encounter with the infamous Oswego Falls, or the
“Falls of the Onondaga” if one called this river by that name.

Wednesday, October 16th. Started at half past six and
soon came to an island on the right, and two locations on
the left, and discovered the Oswego Falls, which are
about eight feet high. The water is as still as in a basin,
and the current is scarcely perceptible until just at the
brink of the fall, which renders it easy to land, - usually
on the right, where the portage house, and near it anoth¬
er, is built. On the left side is a house on the top of the
bank, with clearings.

The river, which is quite wide above this perpendic¬
ular fall, flows over a bed of stone, perfectly level, form¬
ing several sheets following the irregularity of the edge
and the crevices of the upper shelf, from which it falls
with a loud noise, bearing along with it the debris of rock
to the channel below, where the river forms a succession
of rapids. The principal of these, and the one having the
most water, is in the bend on the right side.

“Six miles below the point you arrive at the falls of Onondaga, which,
more properly, should be called the falls of Oswego, as they are upon that
river. This, however, I am told is in contradistinction to a very strong
rapid, four or five miles below this, which is called the Oswego Falls. I
had always been led to believe that what were called the Falls of
Onondaga were nothing more than a mere rapid, therefore I was not a lit¬
tle surprised to find a perpendicular fall of the whole river for about ten
feet, excepting a narrow channel of about twenty feet wide, worn by the
constant friction of the water.”

Christian Schultz, 1807186

Between the two great rapids above mentioned, the
bed of the river is paved by a mass of rock in one level,
which further on forms a pleasant appearing island. On
the left several creeks fall into the river, near one of
which we saw an Indian family, who had some bear skins
stretched on frames around their cabin, and a bark canoe
on the bank.

Near this place the river forms another island. The
sky was overcast through the day, with sleet from nine in
the morning till sunset. After pitching our tent on the
right bank, we noticed in the distance a fire, and heard a
cow bell, from which we judged that they had already
begun settlements in this secluded country.

This camp, marking the end of their second week on the jour¬
ney, may well have been made in the same spot selected by
Vanderkemp the year before, as he also had Major DeZeng as a
guide in his passage down the Oswego:

We concluded to encamp about ten miles from three-
rivers point, opposite to a handsome Island in the Oswego

On the same side we observed a cutting in the rock
which they told us was the trace of a canal projected in
the time of the French, but which we thought was only
done to supply a mill, while the French had a fortified
post on the top of the bank. This fort commanded the pas¬
sage and closed it against the canoes of the Iroquois, who
in wartime, at the solicitations of the English, took this
route to molest our establishments in Canada.

The Frenchmen were right
to doubt their boatmen’s tale
of the old canal at this site, but
wrong to understand the fort
that stood here had been
French:

The land by the falls is
a state reservation - there is here a fine place for a mill -
The British had a saw mill here and a fort to protect the

The fort at Oswego Falls, 1794.

77

The Oswego Falls

In the early years of the nineteenth century, the sixty foot long
Durham boats became common in this region, particularly in
the shipping of salt out of Onondaga Lake. Boats were rarely
portaged around the Falls of the Oswego [sometimes called the
Falls of the Onondago], unless they were small batteaux and
lacked the assistance of a pilot. Such was apparently the case in
one instance in 1810:

“The portage at the falls, is something more than a mile.

We carried across, though we might have descended by water;
but our boat must have been light, and our courage a little
greater than any of us possessed at that moment.”

Harry Croswell, 1810188

That same year, DeWitt Clinton, apparently traveling in a
Durham boat himself, observed the situation surrounding the
Falls in greater detail, noting the importance of the salt com¬
merce here and the passing of unloaded boats down the rapids:

“In a smart shower we arrived at the celebrated Falls of
Oswego, twelve miles from Three-River Point, and twelve
miles from Oswego. There is a carrying place of one mile
here, the upper and lower landing being that distance apart. At
both landings there were about 15,000 barrels of salt, containing five bushels each, and each bushel weighing
fifty-six pounds. It is supposed the same quantity has been already carried down, making together 30,000 barrels.

The carriage at this place is one shilling for each barrel.

“Loaded boats cannot with safety descend the Falls, but light boats may, notwithstanding the descent is
twelve feet, and the roaring of the troubled waves among the great rocks is really terrific. Pilots conduct the
boats over for one dollar each; and being perfectly acquainted with the Falls, no accidents are known to hap¬
pen, although the least misstep would dash the vessels to atoms. The Falls are composed of high rocks, appar¬
ently granite. The ascent by boat is impractical.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810189

After 1803, when the other improvements of Philip Schuyler’s company had been already completed, this location
remained the most difficult and dangerous spot on the inland navigation corridor. Its improvement remained within the
mission of the Navigation Company until 1809, when all work west of Oneida Lake was abandoned. But in the end, it
was never improved:

“The Western Inland Navigation Company are bound, by their act of incorporation, to erect locks at all the
falls and obstructions on this route; but, in consequence of having expended their funds, they are unable to pro¬
ceed with their improvements. The state has already made a purchase of this stock to a large amount, in order
to give aid to the company; but it appears to be the general opinion, that unless it should take the whole into its
hands, or give the proprietors some further and more effectual assistance, the establishment must inevitably fail, or
at least, every thing will be suffered to remain in its present unfinished and obstructed state.”

Christian Schultz, 1807 190

The portage bypassing the Oswego Falls, 1795.

portage which is two chains. But the rapid with dangerous
rocks continues a mile below the carrying place, and is not
to be attempted without a pilot.

James Cockbum, 1792 187

This outpost, described in 1759 as a star fort of timbers fifteen
feet high and a foot thick, was already in ruins a decade later:

...near them was formerly a Block house or advanced
guard, from Oswego fort; but is now burned.

John Lees, 1768 191

Vestiges of the fortifications here could be seen for a century
after, but were not visited by this party. Perhaps it was the mill
race mentioned by Cockburn that the journalists observed and

78

took for an old canal.

Years later, DeWitt Clinton described a similar feature here
that suggested to him the possibility of a canal yet to come:

A little below the Upper Falls, a ravine, the ancient
bed of a creek, appears, which falls in just below the
Lower. Here a canal might be easily cut round the Falls.

DeWitt Clinton, 1810192

In 1793, the passage of the Oswego Falls involved the combina¬
tion of portaging boats and cargo as well as the piloting of empty
boats through otherwise impassable rapids, to be reloaded below.

They slide the boats on rollers a distance of about
sixty toises to the foot of the falls, from which point they
are taken empty through the rapids about a mile, while
the goods are loaded upon wagons, along a road upon the
bank, to the point of embarkation. The price of the
portage is four shillings, as at other places. We went this
distance on foot. The soil next to the ridge of the fall is of
moderate fertility. It is, however, cleared, and there is a
new log house at the lower landing, where we again
rejoined the four bateaux which we had overtaken,
going to Canada.

But passing even an empty boat was not always a simple
matter:

After the boat was unloaded, the captain determined
to descend the falls in his empty boat rather than wait for
the return of the teams to take it round over land. He urged
me very strongly to make the descent with him, but as I
should not then have had an opportunity of seeing the boat
descend, nor of making those observations that I could
upon the banks, I declined, and recommended my com¬
panion for his chief mate, but he likewise declined the hon¬
our, preferring a walk of twenty minutes by land, to a flight
of two or three by water.

The captain, and some of his men, then descended
themselves, and, at the first pitch, nearly one-half of the
boat disappeared; all the men fell down, while the counte¬
nance and conduct of the captain betrayed evident signs of
the frolic not being quite so agreeable as he had expected;
and, when we arrived at the landing place, we found the
boat half full of water. Having repaired the boat, which had
received some injury in descending the falls, our cargo was
soon reloaded, and we continued our voyage.

Christian Schultz, 1807 193

“Here the river is about two hundred yards wide, and the water at one
pitch all across the river, falls eight feet, and forms a strong, foaming
rapid for one mile below. The banks of this river are low, and subject
to be overflowed. The land apparently rich.”

Jacob Lindley, 1793194

Perhaps to the good fortune of the French expedition, their
pilot rejoined them unexpectedly just above the falls.

Here the river is quite wide, and from hence to the
lake it forms several rapids so difficult to pass that we
were again obliged to take a pilot. On again meeting
Major Bingham, at whose house we had taken breakfast
at Three Rivers, he offered of his own accord to conduct
us down for a dollar. A major, skilled as a sailor and a
pilot, for a dollar, gave us an idea of the importance of
this rank in America.

The view of the river is very fine, with its islands
scattered here and there in a truly romantic way. The
shores are low, but a little beyond rise into steep banks,
but further down, as we approach the lake, they become
higher, and we meet considerable rapids. Our major pilot
took us through them all very skillfully, except one, called
from its difficulty of navigation the DeviTs Race, where
we stopped upon the rocks. But our major, who was as
intrepid in the water as under fire, threw himself into the
river, and by his example induced our three men to do
likewise, when by lifting with their shoulders, the boat
passed over the shelf of rocks and glided again into
the channel.

“We passed a number of salt-boats. The commerce in salt is great
between Oswego and the Falls. As we approached the former place the
country bore marks of cultivation; the banks became more elevated, the
current increased in force, and the rapids in number. About seven miles
from Oswego we encountered a rapid called Smooth Rock Rapid. Six and
a-half miles, the Devil’s Horn; six miles, the Six-Mile Rift; then the Little
Smooth Rock Rapid, the Devil’s Warping Bars; four miles, the Devil’s
Horse Race; and one mile from Oswego, the Oswego Rift, a violent rapid,
nearly as bad as the Oswego Falls, having a fall of at least five feet.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810195

The sight of the water plunging and boiling against
the rocks, and of the other four bateaux, two of which
passed safely while the others like ours were thrown upon
the rocks, formed a scene rather exciting. As for the dan¬
ger, there is none except that of bruising the bateaux, as
the water is shallow, thus causing all the trouble with but
little peril.

79

The Durham Boat

A Durham boat underway, from an early woodcut.

By 1797 the several necessary portages along the Mohawk had been eliminated by the improvements of the Western
Inland Lock Navigation Company. Various other obstacles to large boat operations had been overcome by the
works in the Mohawk channel completed in 1799 and those in Wood Creek in 1803. It was then that the small,
portable batteau was rapidly replaced by the long and narrow river craft known as the Durham boat.

The prototype of this boat in America had been the mid-eighteenth century iron ore boats of the Delaware River,
which gained fame in transporting General Washington’s troops across that river to attack the Hessians in 1776. Before
the end of the century, they were as common in New York as they had been in Pennsylvania.

“The Durham boat, constructed something in shape like a modem canal boat, with flat bottom, and carry¬
ing from eight to twenty tons, took the place of the clumsy little bateau which had for more than fifty years
superseded the Indian bark canoe. These Durham boats were not decked except at the front and stem; but along
the sides were heavy planks partially covering the vessel, with cleats nailed on them, to give foothold to the
boatmen using the poles. Many of the boats fitted for use on the lakes and St. Lawrence had a mast, with one
large sail, like an Albany sloop. The usual crew was from five to six men. At that day, boatmen at Schenectady
were numerous, and generally were a rough and hardy class; but from common labors, exposures and hard¬
ships, a sort of brotherly affection for each other existed among them which did not brook the interference of
outsiders, and yet as a class they were orderly, law-abiding citizens.

“Boating at this period was attended with great personal labor. True, the delay of unloading and carriage at
the Little Falls had been overcome, but it was found more difficult to force large than small craft over the
rapids. In view of that difficulty, several boats usually started from port in company, and those boats first arriv¬
ing at a rift, at a low-water stage, waited the approach of others, that their united strength might lighten the
labor there. At high water, with favorable wind, they could sail the navigable length of the river; but when sails
were insufficient, long poles were used. These poles had heads of considerable size that rested against the
shoulder of the boatman, while pushing onward; as the writer has sometimes seen the shoulders of the boatmen
become calloused by such labor, like that of a severe collar-worn horse. The toil of a boatman’s life, when actu¬
ally at work, was generally severe and trying; so that, in port, like the sailor, they were sometimes festive and
hilarious.”

John Sanders, 1876 196

Christian Schultz, passing up the Mohawk River in 1807, gives a particularly accurate impression of these 60 foot
boats; most dramatic to watch in operation for someone unfamiliar with shoal water navigation:

“It is not often, however, that a fair wind will serve for more than three or four miles together, as the irreg¬
ular course of the river renders its aid very precarious; their chief dependence, therefore, is upon their pike
poles. These are generally from eighteen to twenty-two feet in length, having a sharp pointed iron, with a sock¬
et weighing ten or twelve pounds affixed to the lower end; the upper has a large knob, called a button, mounted
upon it, so that the poleman may press upon it with his whole weight without endangering his person.

“This manner of impelling the boat forward is extremely laborious, and none but those who have been for
some time accustomed to it, can manage these poles with any kind of advantage. Within the boat on each side
is fixed a plank running fore and aft, with a number of cross cleats nailed upon it, for the purpose of giving the
poleman a sure footing in hard poling. The men, after setting their poles against a rock, bank or bottom of the
river, declining their heads very low, place the upper end or button against the back part of their right or left
shoulders, (according to the side on which they may be poling,) then falling down on their hands and toes,

continued on next page

continued from page 80

creep the whole length of the gang-boards, and send the boat forward with considerable speed.

“The first sight of four men on each side of a boat, creeping along on their hands and toes, apparently
transfixed by a huge pole, is no small curiosity; nor was it, until I had observed their perseverance for two or
three hundred yards, that I became satisfied they were not playing some pranks. From the general practice of
this method, as likewise from my own trials and observation, I am convinced that they have fallen upon the
most powerful way possible to exert their bodily strength for the purpose required. The position, however, was
so extremely awkward to me, that I doubt whether the description I have attempted will give you an adequate
idea of the procedure.”

Christian Schultz, 1807197

A few days later, while traveling down the Oswego River, Schultz noted the treachery of operating these large
river freighters in strong rapids:

“The navigation of this river is extremely dangerous, on account of the rapidity of the current, and the
obstructions formed by numerous rocks, which lie hid in the channel. About five miles below the point our
boat very narrowly escaped being stove to pieces, by being forced upon what is called Pilot Rock. The rapidity
of the current here was so great, that the united strength and exertions of our whole boat’s crew, nine in num¬
ber, including ourselves, could not have prevented the boat from being wrecked, as we had become exhausted
by fatigue, had we not fortunately met with assistance from five boats’ crews, who were coming up the stream
empty. These boats being very narrow, an expert pilot will conduct them with great judgement among the
rocks; but, from their great length, (about sixty feet,) should the boat happen to strike any thing, or touch a
rock on the bottom, the rapidity of the current sweeps the stem round with so much violence, that, should it
come in contact with some projecting rock, as is not unfrequently the case, the boat is instantly dashed to
pieces. The way of managing a boat on these waters, when she grounds forward, is to keep her in her position,
and prevent her from springing with the current. For that purpose a couple of hands jump over the bows, and
with hand-spikes set the boat back against the stream, until she regains the regular channel; but when once
she swings in a very strong current, it is impossible for an ordinary boat’s crew to check her, in which case,
if she has room, and a clear bottom, no evil can result; but if, on the contrary, she strike a rock, ship-wreck
becomes inevitable.”

Christian Schultz, 1807197

Two miles below we landed on the left bank to
relieve the bateau, on account of the shallowness of the
river, which is here very wide. The banks are here formed
of a greyish kind of clay, resting upon horizontal bed's
and strata of alternately gray and brown stone.

By leaving their boat to lighten it, the French party missed the
immediate experience of descending the final series of rapids
leading toward the mouth of the Oswego River and Lake Ontario.
The last of these, an extended rush of water often called the
“Oswego Falls”, but not to be confused with the greater falls
above [Fulton], apparently could propel one’s boat into the harbor
below the walls of Fort Ontario with exceptional speed.

One traveler, who had the courage to remain within his boat on
approaching Oswego, recorded his impressions:

For a distance of five miles below the falls there is a
very strong rapid, the descent of which is probably not less
than six or seven feet in each mile; this continues much the
same until you arrive within one mile of the town, when
you suddenly perceive a rapid increase of motion, occa¬
sioned by what are called the falls of Oswego.

The town and its shipping are now in sight; the cur¬
rent hurries forward almost with the rapidity of an arrow;
and, although the water is perfectly clear and transparent,
the bed of the river a smooth solid rock, and the water so
shoal that you frequently feel the boat mb against the bot¬
tom, yet you are wafted along with such extreme swiftness
that you can scarcely get a glimpse of the bottom as you
glide over it; and, before you can imagine it, find yourself
unexpectedly among the vessels of Oswego.

Christian Schultz, 1807 199

81

82

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Oswego

83

Having left their batteau in the hands of the boatmen, to
run empty down through the last rapids in the river, the
party approached the end of the inland route to the Great
Lakes on foot.

In the distance we observed the lake, and Fort
Ontario, now called Oswego. This fort, built by the
French upon the right bank, is now occupied by the
English, who have abandoned a site less advantageous
on the left bank, which is now in ruins. We noticed that
the soil is rocky and sterile, and the timber of meagre
growth. We returned to our boat on approaching the fort,
at the foot of which we landed, and presently an English
inspector paid us a visit to see that we had brought no
merchandize, as trade with Canada is prohibited. Finding
nothing, he retired, and Major DeZeng went up alone
into the fort to procure a government pass which he flat¬
tered himself that he could obtain, as the commandant,
Captain Schroeder, was like himself a Hessian, and he
had a letter of recommendation from Mr. Porteus his
friend.

Oswego stood as a destination for most of the commercial and
military batteaux traveling west from Schenectady. This expedi¬
tion, however, was interested only in swiftly passing through this
port and on to their lands to the northeast.

Yet without perhaps fully appreciating it, they had arrived at
one of the most historic places in North America:

Oswego is a place celebrated in our colonial history
as one of the great depots of the fur trade. It was strenu¬
ously contended for by the French and English, in their
American wars. During the Revolutionary contest it was
occupied by the British, who held it in defiance of the
treaty of peace, until it was delivered up under Jay’s treaty.

As an important post, commanding the communication
between the lakes and the waters that communicate with
the Hudson, it must ever claim the attention of
Government.

DeWitt Clinton, 1810200

The landscape here was dominated by the fort, which occu¬
pied a height of land on the east side of the river’s mouth, and at
its foot a small cove served as a batteau landing:

Oswego fort stands at the entrance of the river, which
it commands... the fort is an irregular pentagon, and is gar¬
risoned by a company of the Royal Americans and a few
artillery men - It is in very bad repair and I am informed
mounts not more than 4 carriage guns - at present the bar¬
racks is capable of containing a ridgement - there is no
house or inhabitant without the fort - and a custom house
officer resides in the fort to stop any prohibited articles
passing from the States to the British colonies.

James Cockbum, 1792201

At this time (1793), the old civilian settlement on the west side
of the river was in ruins. As observed by Philip Schuyler, civilian
occupation had not re-established itself, even a decade later:

The fort on the north side going to ruin. Garrisoned
by a Corporal & two men. Town lots are laid out on the
south side and one tolerably good house & store house is
erected by a Mr. Sharp who keeps a public house. There are
besides three miserable huts - two wharves are construct¬
ed, at which there lay a sloop and two schooners ready to
sail for Niagara and Kingston.

Philip Schuyler, 1802202

Five years later, in 1807, the marginal beginnings of a town
were observed here by Christian Schultz:

j

This town was regularly laid out by the state... but, at
present, it makes a very contemptable appearance, from the
irregular and confused manner in which the inhabitants are
permitted to build their houses and stores. Most of these
are placed as suits the convenience or whim of the owners,
in the streets or elsewhere, without any regard to the orig¬
inal plan. As the town is quite small, and there is no want
of room, the inhabitants do not complain of this encroach¬
ment at present; but it certainly would be not only for their
interest, but would likewise add much to the beauty of the
place, were they to observe as much taste and regularity in
their buildings as possible. This would obtain a favourable
notice from travelers, and probably be the means of gain¬
ing settlers; whereas the present appearance of the houses
and accommodations are really despicable.

Christian Schultz, 1807203

The major problem faced by navigators wishing to get by
Oswego and into Lake Ontario in this period was the persistent j
British garrison here, a decade after the end of the Revolution, and
the consequent paranoia about boats going to Canada.

“When we arrived at the Fort of Oswego on Lake Ontario, we were
searched to see if we were not ‘running goods’ as they called it. This being
adjusted without any difficulty, for we were neither spies nor smugglers,
we were now ready to embark on the lake...”

Rev. Elijah Woolsey, 1794204

This situation also frustrated, and nearly aborted, the expe¬
dition of Pharoux and Desjardins to their lands along the
Black River.

In the mean time Major Bingham, to conciliate the
garrison in our favor, did them ample honors with our
rum, and drank most cordially with his late enemies,
while we passed the time in walking, and in examining
the fort.

The ruins of many houses here convinced us that
this place had been a small town in the times of the
French. The soil is quite sterile. We noticed some very
long saws, with which they employ the soldiers in saw¬
ing planks. The timber on both sides is cut off, having
been used as fire wood, so that now the garrison find
another occupation, in going out to cut at some dis¬
tance from the lake shore, and loading it into large
bateaux, which we saw lying in a cove that the river
forms at the foot of the fort.

84

Oswego Harbor

At the mouth of the Oswego River, a harbor was formed by the intrusion,
from either side of the river, of two substantial heights of land. The resis¬
tance of these bedrock elevations to the pounding seas of Lake Ontario had
created an enclosure, within which the harbor would eventually develop.

On a broad elevation on the right bank, as one came down the river, stood
Fort Ontario, a fortification begun by the British in 1755. This was to replace the
earlier, and weaker, Fort Oswego, established on the left bank in 1727, and in
ruins in 1793. Below the height on which the old fort stood was a low bench of
land adjacent to the river, which provided some minimal space for the creation of
a town, of sorts. Opposite, on the right bank, a small cove at the base of the cliffs
leading to Fort Ontario served as a batteau landing and small harbor. It was here
than the French expedition landed in October of 1793.

In 1756, Oswego fell to the French. But lack of forces to secure the port
led to its recapture by the British two years later. In 1759 a new fort was begun
on the right bank, built largely with wood, and it was this that the French party
saw on their arrival over three decades later.

Oswego became the gateway to the Great Lakes for British North America
until the American Revolution, and the treaty of 1783, placed the base on American soil. During this period, some
attempts to establish a village on the west bank continued, but when the French batteau arrived in 1793, these attempts
were a shambles, best described as ruins.

The harbor, standing at the western end of the great inland navigation corridor, continued to serve as the gateway to
the west for the emerging republic, providing access into the Great Lakes and the heartland of North America until the
completion of the Erie Canal in 1825.

below Fort Ontario.

Notwithstanding these employments, and the
amusements of hunting and fishing , the garrison become
exceedingly weary , with nobody to see in this wilderness,
and the bleak winters to pass on the top of an isolated hill,
exposed to all winds from every side. The garrison is
relieved annually in May, and half of them have already
deserted. Most of these troops are Germans and Scotch.
They say that most of them are Catholics, and that they
are very discontented here.

The fort is a polygon of four sides, and upon one of
the bastions the fort, properly so called, is built, the
remainder being only an earthen parapet with a palisade.
It perfectly commands the lake and the mouth of the
Oswego River, which is narrow and forms a natural har¬
bor or bay on each side. There were no cannons, except
on the bastion at the point , and this fort could resist noth¬
ing but a hand assault.

Seeing the commandant come out with Mr. DeZeng,
we returned to our boat, least offense should be taken at
our making observations, and Mr. DeZeng hastened for¬
ward to tell us that he had represented to the comman¬
dant that he was taking M. Pharoux to visit some lands
which he had for sale; that M. Desjardins was the ser¬
vant, and that M. Brunei was the secretary of Pharoux.
He had done this to escape suspicions, and although we
blamed him for not having told the simple truth, we
were however obliged to accept conditions, so as not
appear false.

M. Pharoux therefore advanced alone toward the
officer, who, in an imperious tone, said he was astonished
that Frenchmen should dare to venture near an English
fort, that he could scarcely restrain himself from sending
us prisoners to Quebec, and that his orders forbade him
from allowing any Frenchmen from going into Canada.

“Fort Oswego is, at present, garrisoned by a captain’s company of British
red coats, in violation of the treaty of 1783; - but according to my calcu¬
lations, this violent, and truly British aggression, will be of short dura¬
tion. A high spirited, independent nation, will not long brook the insult.”

Elkanah Watson, 1791205

M. Pharoux replied that, although French, our citi¬
zens could go upon the territory of their allies the
Americans, and that we had no intentions of going to
Canada, but to the Black River, which belonged to the
State of New York, as did also the Oswego country where
they then were, and as for the rest, he could well see that
we came with no hostile designs, that we were only three
men, and with no arms but our hunting pieces; and last¬
ly, that he had no occasion to take offense at our visit.

The Commandant, having thus displayed himself
before the soldiers of his garrison, returned majestically
into the fort, followed by Major DeZeng, who continued
his solicitations for a passport.

85

Fort Ontario

Fort Ontario, often called “Fort Oswego” in the 1790s, stood on the east side of the harbor at the mouth of the
Oswego River. Built initially by the British, it was captured by the French in 1756 and reoccupied by the British
who held it to the end of the American Revolution in 1783. It was supposed to be turned over to the Americans in
1796, under the terms of the Jay Treaty, but was not in American hands until 1798.

The situation here in the mid- 1790s is described by one observant traveler:

“Oswego is one of the posts, which Great Britain has hitherto retained, in open violation of the treaty of
peace, though she will be obliged to deliver it up to the United States, in the course of next year [1796]. It is a
miserable fort, which, in the year 1782, was built at a considerable expense by General Haldimand, at that
time Governor of Canada. The river Oswego, at the mouth of which the fort is seated, is at present almost the
only course for American vessels to Lake Ontario. The fort is in a ruinous state; one single bastion, out of five,
which form the whole of the fortification, is kept in better repair than the rest, and might serve as a citadel, to
defend for some time the other works, indefensible by any other means. The present garrison consists of two
officers and thirty men, under whose protection a customhouse-officer searches all the vessels, which sail up or
down the river. It is not lawful to import any other articles from the United States into Canada, but grain, flour,
cattle, and provision, and no commodities are suffered to be exported to the United States, without the express
permission from the Governor of Upper Canada; nay, this prohibition extends even to persons, who, if they
intended to proceed to that country without such permission, would be imprisoned. As to the prohibited exports
in merchandize, they are confiscated, without exception, for the benefit of the customhouse-officer, by whom
they are seized...

“This officer... has not even a secretary. His pay is ten shillings a day, and a ration, which is estimated at
two. He receives his pay all the year round, though the navigation of the lake is entirely interrupted for five
months, and he himself is seven months absent from Oswego... The number of vessels, which ascend and
descend the Oswego during the seven months the navigation is open, amounts to about thirty a month. By Mr.
Mac-Donald’s account far the greater number of them carry new settlers to Upper Canada, at which I am not
astonished, it being a certain fact, that the emigration from the United States to Canada is far more considerable,
than from the latter to the former country.

“Fort Oswego is the only settlement on the banks of the lake between Kingston and Niagara, excepting
Great Sodus... Twelve miles behind Oswego, stands, on the river, the first American settlement. This fort must
therefore shift for itself. The officers hunt, read, and drink; and the privates do duty, are displeased with their
situation, and desert. For this reason the oldest soldiers are selected for the garrison of Oswego; and yet,
though less open to temptation, they desert to the United States. This fort, which lies too remote for any
communication with foreign countries, is for five months together completely cut off from the rest of the
world; the snow lying then so deep, that it is impossible to go abroad but in snow shoes.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795 206

86

We were soon after informed that we must go and
encamp on the other side of the river, as Frenchmen
could not be trusted so near the fort. We obeyed, although
we were only three against sixty, and these well
intrenched.

Earlier the same summer, a party going west, but lacking any
Frenchmen on board, passed easily onto the lake:

...proceeded to Oswego garrison, held by the British.
They expecting us, we were admitted, and dined with the
commanding officer, Capt. Wickham. After dinner, we pur¬
sued our journey on the sea of Ontario...

Jacob Lindley, 1793207

Having failed to clear the port of Oswego by late in the day,
after extensive negotiations, the French party withdrew to the site
of the old settlement on the west side of the harbor and prepared
to remain the night.

Major DeZeng told us that he had hopes of getting
the passport. Having crossed the river, we pitched our
tent near the ruins of some chimneys, among the debris
of former habitations, and found great difficulty in col¬
lecting wood enough for our camp fire for the night, as
the four other bateaux, having no trouble with their
papers, had encamped before us and gathered all the fuel
on the ground. The night was very cold.

After some time, Major DeZeng came to inform us
that the government had finally consented to grant a
passport, but only for us two, and upon conditions that M.
Brunei should remain a hostage until our return, as a
guaranty that we should not go into Canada. M. Brunei
generously offered to remain, and thus facilitate our
journey, but he begged Mr. DeZeng to say that he would
not give his parole, and that he would only stay upon con¬
dition of being shut up in the fort, instead of remaining
alone on this desert side of the river. With this answer the
major returned to sup and lodge with the governor, and
we remained to council together upon our situation.

With their entire expedition in jeopardy, banished to the deso¬
late ruins of the old town, with only the dim lights of the British
fort across the harbor, and the campfires of the other batteaux, as
evidence of human presence, the party was left to endure a cold
October night, contemplating what the morning would bring.

“From the mouldering parapet of the deserted Fort of Oswego, I beheld,
for the first time, that vast expanse of water, which, forced by the rude
winds, lashes the shore of Lake Ontario. The surf, ‘curling its monstrous
head,’ rolled far on the beach, or dashed with fury against the adaman¬
tine rock. A lonely barque, ploughed through the unequal waves, greener
than the waves of the ocean.”

Harry Crosswell, 1810208

But their night was further disturbed by an episode of serious
trouble with the boatmen who had brought them here.

To crown our miseries, the boatmen, stimulated by
the rum they had been served with so freely on account of
the perils of the navigation, and through the liberality of
Major Bingham, came to demand of us the payment of
their accounts, saying that they would return in the
morning on foot, leaving us and our bateau where we
were. The fact was that the sight of a vast lake, and the
diminutive size of our bateau, dismayed them. Moreover,
seeing our difficulty with the governor, who would do
nothing to protect the French, they thought it a favorable
moment to show their rascality, without risk, by leaving
us in this wilderness.

Such impending desertion was typical of batteau crews in this
period, and often occurred in the face of deepwater navigation,
here and at Oneida Lake. The best defense, in dealing with these
kinds of insurrections, was often a strong offense.

“We go on slowly, from some difficulty among the Batteaux Men— You
know them to be a bad Set.”

Charles Storer, 1793209

We dismissed them to bed very abruptly, and made
ourselves sure of our arms and effects by watching in
turns through the night.

M. Desjardins, while off guard, went to visit the
fires of the other bateaux parties, and there met a man
named Amos Ainsley, a loyalist refugee from Kingston in
Canada.

This man returned with him to our tent, and, after
waking us all up, he gave us some very useful accounts
concerning the Bay of Niaoure’ and the Black River. He
had become acquainted with the country by having tra¬
versed it several times, while trading in cattle between
Kingston and New York, and trapping there for peltries.

He made sundry offers of services, and promised to visit
M. Desjardins next winter at Albany.

This encounter no doubt did much to alleviate a growing anx¬
iety among members of the party. Traveling this late in the season,
and with much exploration in the Black River country ahead of
them, any substantial delay became critical. It was typical in the
1790s to have the inland navigation closed as early as the first
week of December, due to “frost”.

The next morning brought an opportunity to resolve their sit¬
uation, which hinged on the demand of the Commandant that
Brunei be left as a hostage to guarantee the return of the party to
Oswego.

Thursday, October 17th. At day break Major DeZeng
returned, saying that the governor would not hear a word
about receiving M. Brunei into his fort, but that he might
remain on the other side, and when he wanted anything,
could fire his gun, and a man would be sent to ascertain
what he needed, and carry it to him.

Mr. DeZeng had notified the Commandant that
upon these terms he could answer for his hostage, and

87

that probably he would return to Oswego Falls, and there
await our return. From the portage to the fort it is about
twelve miles, and half of the distance is a rapid. The
major added that he had promised the governor our case
of gin, and some powder and lead, and finally that the
interpreter of the fort would come and search everything.

Upon this we held counsel.

It was determined that deceit would have to be used to avoid
depriving Brunei of the opportunity of evaluating the lands this
expedition was dedicated to examining, and a bit of rationaliza¬
tion was used to justify the deception.

M. Brunei felt himself released from parole, since
he had only given it upon condition of being received into
the fort. On the other hand, he disliked being turned back
without finishing his journey, to spend a wearisome time
in waiting at the falls.

We therefore resolved to pass him under our tar¬
paulin, (the number of our men being specified in the
passport), from whence he could come out when we were
out of sight of the fort, but again crawl out of sight should
we meet any English vessels to demand our papers.

With this agreement, we waited for the interpreter
until nine o’clock, when, seeing nothing of him, we
embarked, ready to start. And at half past nine, our men
were induced by Mr. DeZeng to return to duty, notwith¬
standing their dislike to the lake. M. Brunei, being laid
under the tarpaulin, was not seen from the fort, and the
sentinel allowed us to pass.

The wind being favorable we hoisted sail, and,
coasting along, steered for Nine Mile Point. The sky was
serene, the water smooth, and the wind fair...

“Lake Ontario resembles rather an open sea, than an inland reservoir of
water. You look in vain for land to rest your eye upon.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792210

The expedition continued along the eastern shore of Lake
Ontario and undertook their exploration of the lands to which they
hoped to bring settlers and establish a community of French
refugees in the coming years. As they returned along this same
shore ten days later, landing to make camp for the night, an inci¬
dent occurred that would add a new member to their party for the
return trip eastward.

[October 27th] Fortunately a bateau behind us, having
seen us land, thought it was a good shore, and came to
land by the side of us. It contained a Canadian named
Silas Judson, and was managed by two Americans living
at Three Rivers. These men, better fitted than ours for
traveling in a wilderness, soon cut down a quantity of
wood, and having piled a dozen logs on one another, we
were soon basking before a most brilliant fire. After get¬
ting thoroughly warmed, we supped and smoked, and
then looked after the safety of our boats.

Having formed the acquaintance of our fellow voy¬
agers, we agreed to continue together, and as Mr. Judson

was going to Albany, we promised to take him into our
boat at Three Rivers, and bring him to Schenectady,
without any pay, although he offered us money for the
service.

This Mr. Judson was an American, native of
Hartford, Connecticut, where he was going to visit his
relatives and friends. Being a Royalist, he had emigrated
to Canada, where the Government had given him a place
at Elizabethtown, in the Township of Oswegatchie, three
miles from the river St. Lawrence. He gave us some very
useful accounts concerning Upper Canada.

On the morning of the 27th day of their voyage, the French
party once again drew close to the western entrance to the inland
waterway. Being unfamiliar with the coastline, they were stunned
to find they had suddenly drawn in sight of the fort without tak¬
ing precautions for the supposed hostage, Brunei, whom they
were smuggling back into the country.

Monday Oct. 28th. ...came in sight of Oswego and the
fort. We could scarcely believe our eyes, as it was but two
or three miles distant. It became necessary to think of our
friend Brunei, and we accordingly landed in the first bay,
about two miles from the fort, and having given him some
provisions, he set out, to travel through the woods and
join us at the Falls of the Onondaga, this being the first
place inhabited by Americans, as we come from the lake.

As we had reason to suppose that we had been seen
from the garrison, we decided to continue our route on
foot towards the fort, allowing our people to take the boat
around to Oswego, where we would rejoin it by land. We
thought to profit by the occasion, in observing the fort
from a point of view we had not as yet enjoyed.

Our conjectures were not wrong, as they had
noticed our landing, and had sent after our bateau, sup¬
posing that it had landed some contraband articles. But
as they found all right, and as our men told them they had
landed their passengers so that they could come by land,
they allowed them to continue their route. An officer then
came to meet us, and demanded who we were and why we
had thus landed. We replied that we were the same
Frenchmen who had passed some days before, to go and
visit lands, that we were returning to Albany, and that it
was so cold that we had landed so as to warm ourselves
by walking to the fort. The officer then put on a more
pleasant manner, and took us through the line of sen¬
tinels, chatting meanwhile on one thing and another.

He had traveled in France, spoke our language, and
showed, by his sprightliness and polite address, that he
really was the true gentleman that his manners indicated.
This amiable young man, the son of Mr. Holland,
Surveyor General of Canada, was killed eighteen months
afterwards in a duel with his Captain, the same governor
of Oswego.

It was perhaps fortunate that the party had on board Major
DeZeng, who was acquainted with John Porteous, a friend of the
Commandant. DeZeng was also familiar with the procedure of
negotiating with the British and apparently felt comfortable in
facilitating that process with some half-truths.

On arriving at the gate of the fort, which we went
around, Mr. DeZeng went in to speak with the governor,
while we walked down to the beach to rejoin our bateau.

An hour afterwards governor Schroeder came, and
in a solemn tone enquired as to what had become of his
hostage. M. Pharoux replied that he knew very well that
it was impossible to subsist on the other side of the river,
and that having been refused admission to the fort, he
had probably gone back to the falls of the Onondaga,
where he had been told that he might wait for our return,
which was Jesuitically not telling a lie.

The governor, with all possible gravity, declared that
he must retain us as prisoners, until the return of our
hostage.

The comedy had begun to look serious, but was
ended by Mr. DeZeng, who invited the governor to step
aboard our bateau. There his Excellency was shown the
famous case of gin, which had been promised him. He
convinced himself, by tasting, that it could not be drunk,
but as it had been purchased at the store of his friend Mr.
Porteous, he could not impute any fault to us. He how¬
ever contented himself with the powder and lead which
we gave him, and loaded with these, he returned grave¬
ly into his fort.

He had scarcely turned his heels, when our boat¬
men hastened to set out, as when once out of range of his
cannon he had nothing to say to us.

Brunei, who in the meantime was making his way through the
woods in a wide circuit to the east of the fort, was at no small risk
of being discovered, purely by accident.

We had noticed several patrols scouring the woods,
and they told us that four deserters had escaped, and that
they were trying to find them. While searching for these,
the soldiers might come upon M. Brunei and bring him to
the fort, and Monseigneur the governor might scarcely be
willing to arrange this affair, without sending us to
Canada. All this confusion was the fruit of Mr. DeZeng’s
subterfuge, for had he frankly stated the facts, we might
have passed with the same, or at least with some little sat¬
isfaction.

But finally, the party re-boarded their batteau in the cove at the
foot of the cliff on which the fort stood, and with an encouraging
wind off the lake, began to retrace their journey back along the
inland waterways to Albany.

89

CHAPTER TWELVE

Again to Three Rivers

91

On their departure from the batteau landing at Fort Ontario,
the French party immediately found that the current of the
Oswego, which had hurried their craft down into the harbor
only ten days before, now confronted them with an obstacle of
potentially disastrous proportions.

We left the fort at two o’clock with a good wind, but
the rapids soon prevented us from using the sail, and it
would have been impossible for us to have advanced, had
not the people in the other bateau lent us their aid by
turning in to help us in passing one bad place after
another. It was necessary, almost every moment, to get
into the water, cold as it was. Our men would then drink
rum to warm them. With great fatigue we were only able
to make two or three miles in the course of the afternoon.

The rapids of the Oswego River presented a force much
greater than that they had encountered coming up through the
shallow rifts of the Mohawk, with the possible exception of
Keator’s Rift.

Running west from Fort Stanwix they had enjoyed the relative
ease of navigating downstream. Now they had to backtrack up the
current of each of these waterways, until they could enjoy the
final downriver run on the Mohawk, far to the east. The fortuitous
companionship of the crew of the other batteau possibly saved
their expedition from disaster, or at least certain delay.

The labor was so great that one of the men in the
Canadian bateau, named Armstrong, fell unconscious,
overcome with the cold and the rum that he had drunk.

We took him in charge, and, by forcibly compelling him
to walk, re-established the circulation and saved him.

Exhausted by the ordeal of fighting their way up the river, the
party decided to make camp. Pharoux, in spite of the misfortune
previously associated with land travel on this trip, decided to go
on up toward the falls on foot, in hopes of locating Brunei.

M. Pharoux, who was uneasy about M. Brunei,
resolved to follow the path along the bank, in the hope of
meeting him. We represented that he would fall behind,
and that he ran a risk of getting lost himself, and of being
obliged to sleep in the woods. Our people informed him
that there was a path all the way up, that there were no
creeks to pass, and that he had about ten miles to go.
Upon this he left us at four in the afternoon. We prepared
the tent, and as all our men were too fatigued for further
labors, we resolved to remain till the morrow.

“At night we brought up the boat and made her fast to a tree. We then
kindled a fire, put on the tea kettle and the cooking pot, boiled our pota¬
toes, made our tea, and ate our supper with a good appetite and a clear
conscience, and after smoking our pipes and chatting awhile, we ... laid
ourselves down among the sand and pebbles on the bank of the river to
rest; but I was so wearied with the toils of the day that I could not sleep
much that night.”

Rev. Elijah Woolsey, 1794211

Tuesday. Oct. 29 th. Left at half past six, and, with much
difficulty, overcame the other rapids. The greatest trouble
arose from the low water at that period, so that we were
obliged to push the bateaux by main strength over the
rocks that formed the rapids, and at every moment they
would touch bottom, and hang upon the points. We did
not cease to be anxious about M. M. Pharoux and
Brunei, whom we every moment hoped would rejoin us.

Finally, at half past two, we discovered M. Pharoux
making signs to us, and we hastened to come and take
him in. Instead of finding M. Brunei, he had gone astray,
had passed the night in the woods, was chilled through
and was nearly famished, as he had taken no provisions
with him.

Finally, at four o’clock, we arrived at the portage of
the falls, where we met M. Brunei, in good condition,
except that he had galled his feet on the march. He had
met one of the patrols from the fort, but by his presence
of mind in answering him, had escaped suspicion, and
slipped out of his hands. Not seeing our bateau, he had
continued his route, had reached the log house, got his
supper, and spent a better night than ourselves.

Brunei had walked from their lakeshore landing northeast of
Fort Ontario to the lower landing at the Oswego Falls. It was here
that the log house at which he sheltered overnight was located. It
was perhaps this same house that was visited the following year
by another party under less enjoyable circumstances:

Toward evening we saw a small log house, and went
to it. We found the woman sick in bed, and the man in poor
health. They had three children, and but very little to eat.
Here we lodged all night. I laid me down on the stones of
the floor which were very hard and uneven, but we kept a
good fire all night, and I got into a perspiration which
relieved me of my cold a little, so that in the morning I felt
much better than on the preceding night. Brother D., being
a physician, administered some medicine to the woman
which greatly relieved her also...

This was the only time during our journey of nineteen
days that we found a house to shelter us, and it was good
for that family that they entertained the strangers, for we
were in truth as angels of mercy to them. They must have
suffered greatly had we not called on them at that time.

Rev. Elijah Woolsey, 1794212

Having been reunited at the falls, the expedition prepared to
move to the embarkation point at the upper landing.

92

The Oswego Portage

Abatteau voyager, coming south up the
Oswego River a couple years after the
French expedition, stopped at the same log
house in which Brunei had sought shelter in 1793.
Here, at the lower landing of the portage, this
traveler recorded the difficulties of the Falls and
lack of reasonable accommodations:

“At the place, where the navigation is
intercepted, we halted at William Shorten’s.

He keeps an inn, that is, he admits into one
room of his house all the travelers, who
desire to sleep there, and accommodates
them with salt pork and rum; which is the
most he is able to do. We arrived there, at
nine o’clock in the evening, wet to the skin; for such of us, as had not been drenched by pushing and draw¬
ing the ship along, were soaked by the constant rain. We dried ourselves at a good fire; and a few slices of
ham, we had brought with us, restored our strength...

“The portage, occasioned by the falls of the river Oswego, is about a mile in length. W. Shorten, at whose
house we stopped, kept only a yoke of oxen, and our vessels were heavy laden. Each vessel was to be conveyed
separately, and the cargo required four turns of the carriage. The Americans not being anywise remarkable for
speed and agility, it was not until five o’clock in the evening, that our vessels had reached the place, where the
navigation recommences, and where they were again to be loaded...

“This time we had not even a bed. Our party, our skippers, landlord, wife, sons and daughters slept all
pell-mell in a room, which was about twelve feet square. And unfortunately we were not sufficiently fatigued,
having traveled but one mile on foot and one mile and a half by water, to find the floor soft, and to be insensi¬
ble to the stings of the musquitoes and the bites of fleas.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795213

This observer also noted the gap in the bedrock escarpment over which the river fell, and which provided in later
years a convenient passage through the falls for the larger, Durham boats:

“The Oswego fall is about ten feet high; and the river nearly one eighth of a mile in width. The prospect is
not without charms. A break of the bed of rocks, from which the river precipitates itself, and the irregularity of
the form, produce a tolerably striking, but not a grand effect. On the right bank, near the water-fall, are found
the traces of an ancient French entrenchment, and hard by them stands a small log-house, the proprietor of
which is at present building a grist-mill below the fall.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795214

It was seven years later, when Durham boats routinely made this passage between the salt works at Onondaga and
the harbor at Oswego, that Philip Schuyler remarked on the changing methods of passage through what had previously
been an overland portage:

“From the head of the falls to the foot thereof is 49 yards over which the empty boats are drawn by
horses or oxen and then put into the river in a current so strong that it is extremely laborious to bring an
empty boat... to the foot of the falls. In going down, unless in very dry seasons, the boats can carry half of
their lading. The other half is transported by land a little more than a mile. In coming up everything is
taken out of the boats, which ascend empty to the foot of the falls where they are taken out and dragged to
the head of the falls.”

Philip Schuyler, 1802215

93

We had passed on foot the portage around the falls,
where our bateau was taken in the evening. Here Mr.
DeZeng showed some traces of ill feeling, instead of act¬
ing openly, but we had an explanation. It arose from our
giving a dollar to the people in the other boat, to encour¬
age them not to leave us until we arrived at Three Rivers.

The owner of the log house could not persuade us to
quit our tent, where we preferred to sleep, notwithstand¬
ing the cold.

We met at the falls two bateaux with families going
to Niagara, notwithstanding the lateness of the season.

Pharoux, Desjardins, Brunei, and their companions might well
have celebrated their re-entry into the batteau above the Oswego
Falls. If they did, no notice of it was made in their journal.

Wednesday. Oct. 30th. Left the falls at 9 o’clock, after
they had finished the portage of our bateau by trucks.
Passed the rapids as far as to Three Rivers with much
trouble, notwithstanding the help of our fellow
voyageurs, without whom we were assured we could
never have got through, as our fresh water mariners had
had no experience in overcoming such obstacles.

Apparently passing again Three River Rift [Phoenix] , the jour¬
nalists were fortunate to witness a variety of native activities
along the shore.

We met several Indians fishing on the bank, and
one of them was mending his broken bark canoe with
other pieces of bark, threads of bark, and resin poured
upon the seams. He had handsome silver rings in his
nose and ears, and it appeared by the riches of this poor
savage that he was some chief.

He so maintained his gravity that he did not quit his
work, nor even turn his head, to look at us.

In one of the fishing cabins we saw some charcoal
sketches, with very good representations of ships and a
landscape.

“...a great many animals tolerably well delineated with coal by the
Indians on the boards of the house...”

Cadwallader Colden, 1721216

Fishing cabins such as these, which had been observed on sev¬
eral occasions by members of the expedition, were inhabited sea¬
sonally as the fish migrated up and down the rivers. They were
probably built on the plan of other Native American bark and
sapling shelters recorded in contemporary accounts:

An Indian hut is built in the following manner: They
peel trees, abounding in sap, such as lime-trees, &c. then
cutting the bark into pieces of two or three yards in length,
they lay heavy stones upon them, that they may become flat
and even in drying. The frame of the hut is made by driving
poles into the ground, and strengthening them by cross
beams.

This frame-work is covered both within and without

with the above-mentioned pieces of bark, fastened very tight
with bast or twigs of hickory, which are remarkably tough.
The roof runs up to a ridge, and is covered in the same man¬
ner. These huts have one opening in the roof to let out the
smoke, and one in the side for an entrance...

George Henry Loskiel, 1794217

The term “cabin” was not meant to imply a log house, and was
often used by travelers in this era to denote the most temporary
bark or brush covered lean-to, as described in 1783 along the
north shore of Oneida Lake:

As night approached the crew landed half way down
the lake, where they improvised a cabin with a good fire to
dry their clothes.

Capt. Alexander Thompson, 1783218

Having reached the safe haven of Three River Point once
again, the French party had an opportunity to rest and to observe
the rudimentary operations of a regional commercial fishery.

On arriving at Three Rivers, the bateau in our com¬
pany remained to fish and take in its load of salmon,
which the men salt on the spot in barrels, and when they
get a load, take them to Fort Stanwix to sell. The river is
so full of fish that the night that M. Brunei slept in the log
house at the portage, two men, who went out at eleven,
returned at two o’clock with their boat full of salmon,
having taken enough to fill two barrels.

“We arrived at three river point about seven, discharged Mr. Barker, and
pitched our tent in the vicinity of his house, crowded with travelers from
several bateaux and canoes, which tarried there since yesterday. Barker
had caught, by throwing a line behind the bateau, four large Oswego
Bass, the smallest of a foot long, which was the best part of our supper.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792219

94

This fishing is done as follows. They kindle
resinous wood , placed in a little cradle made of strips of
iron, fastened to a handle, which is fixed in the bow of the
boat. The fish, attracted by the light, come and leap
around the boat, and sometimes even spring into it, and
the men have nothing to do but to harpoon them with
spears of two prongs, fitted into a handle six feet long.
Then going ashore the next morning, the fishermen open
and clean their fish, cut off the head, and pack them with
Onondaga salt, costing a dollar and a half a hundred, into
barrels holding thirty four gallons. They sell these barrels
at from two to three dollars, according to the supply. Those
who buy the salmon usually smoke them, which is the
best way of preserving them.

These men around Three River Point depended for their liveli¬
hood on their batteaux, easy access to the salt being boated down
from Onondaga Lake, and the highly successful fish harvesting
techniques they adopted from the Oneidas:

We were a little after sunset, suddenly surprised at a
number of fires in a semicircular form on the lake. I num¬
bered nine, others several more. These were made by the
Oneyda Indians spearing eel. They are usually two or three
in a canoe, one steersman, one, who spears in the bow, the
third takes care of the fires, made from dry, easily flaming
wood, in a hollow piece of bark, first covered with sand.

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792220

Such ready access to subsistence without resort to agriculture
apparently had a deleterious effect on these settlers, who carved
out just enough riverside space in the wilderness to accommodate
their cabins.

This facility of gaining a livelihood by hunting and
fishing without care or labor renders the inhabitants who
settle in these parts very indolent. We saw men sitting in
the sun at the doors of their log houses, not yet covered
with bark at the end of October, and nothing doing to
plaster up the crevices between the logs. Instead of giving
the least care in providing against the rigors of winter,
they sat holding their children, and quietly smoking
their pipes.

The profitability of this frontier fishing enterprise, as with all
rural production in this period, depended on the ability to move pro¬
duce from where it was plentiful to markets where it was not. In this
instance, these fishermen depended on their own batteaux to move
the salt-packed fish over 60 miles by water to Fort Stanwix, at the
head of the Mohawk Valley, as no roads of any consequence yet
served the area.

Passing the Three Rivers Rapid [Phoenix] two years after the
French party, one traveler noted a newly arrived homesteader,
struggling to eke out a subsistence from agriculture where none
had previously applied it:

Mr. VanAllen, therefore, as well as myself, went on
shore, and repaired to a small cottage, where we found a
family, but very lately recovered from the ague, and at pre¬
sent busied in mowing a meager looking field of wheat.
These good people, who have no neighbors, are necessitated
to do everything. themselves. Of eight children, who com¬
pose this family, the oldest, who is nine years old, is alone
able to assist them a little. They have neither rakes, har¬
rows nor scythes; and yet it is better to sacrifice three
fourths of their harvest, than to lose the whole.

These poor people, who have lived here a twelve-
month, were constantly troubled with the ague. They pos¬
sessed one thousand two hundred acres of land, six hun¬
dred of which were, by the state of New York, given to the
husband, who had served in the army, and the other six
hundred he purchased two years ago for ten shillings an
acre, but was compelled by extreme distress to sell
again three hundred, with the small profit of two
shillings per acre.

The good people cultivate a garden; they exchanged
some vegetables for a few pounds of pork... They seem to
be good and industrious people; the wife, though mother of
eight children, and scarcely recovered from the ague, is yet
handsome. They presented me with some potatoes and
cucumbers, and declined accepting any payment.

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795221

Yet settlers along this frontier, who did not exhibit the agricul¬
tural prowess familiar to the travelers who passed through the
region, frequently drew the contempt shared by the French jour¬
nalists. Often they were seen as the unsavory cutting edge of civ¬
ilization, described by Isaac Weld as he traveled through western
New York a few years later:

...in general they are men of a morose and savage dis¬
position, and the very outcasts of society, who bury them¬
selves in the woods, as if desirous to shun the face of their
fellow-creatures; there they build a rude habitation, and
clear perhaps three or four acres of land, just as much as
they find sufficient to provide their families with corn:
for the greater part of their food they depend on their
rifle guns.

These people, as the settlements advance, are suc¬
ceeded in general by a second set of men, less savage than
the first, who clear more land, and do not depend so much
upon hunting as upon agriculture for their subsistence.

A third set succeed these in turn, who build good
houses, and bring the land into a more improved state. The
first settlers, as soon as they have disposed of their miser¬
able dwellings to advantage, immediately penetrate farther
back into the woods, in order to gain a place of abode suit¬
ed to their rude mode of life.

Isaac Weld, c!797222

95

i

I

96

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Return to New Rotterdam

97

Having overcome the most arduous portion of their return
journey, and leaving behind the Canadian batteau whose
crew had helped them overcome the rapids of the Oswego
River, the expedition turned eastward into the Oneida River and
began a relatively peaceful navigation up to Oneida Lake.

After warming ourselves, and eating a little at the
Major’s house, we took Mr. Judson into our boat and
encamped and slept four miles beyond, in a very pleasant
spot at the mouth of a creek, on the point of a bend in the
Onondaga.

Apparently the party encamped, at the end of their 30th day, at
the outlet of “Pieter’s Hole”, a swamp of monstrous proportions.
Its prominence is clearly evident on many of the 18th century
maps of the province.

This expanse of low water was located at the apex of a sharp
northward bend in the Oneida River. Although the swamp itself,
and its immediate margins, would have represented anything but
a pleasant campsite, there was an elevated levee, formed by the
river, that separated the swampy land to the north from the main
channel, broken only by the narrow outlet of a creek. This levee
would have provided, in a season of cold weather, a dry and insect
free camp, memorable by comparison with most on this route.

Thursday. Oct. 31st. Started at six o’clock with a fine nav¬
igation, and the river wide and without rapids until the
entrance of Oneida lake, where we could scarcely get
through on account of a bar of gravel. We landed on the
site of Fort Brewerton and warmed ourselves at a log
house, where the inmates - father, mother and children -
were shaking with fever. We walked a mile from thence to

“Pieters Hole”

On several late-eighteenth century maps of the
region east of Three Rivers, appears a vast
section of inundated lands standing on the
north side of the Oneida River, usually denoted as
“Pieters Hole.” In more recent times, this wetland
has been designated “Peter Scott Swamp.”

A most plausible explanation for this latter
name is given in 19th century histories:

“Six-Mile Creek, mentioned above,
which flows through Gilbert’s Mills and
the west part of the town, is properly Peter
Scott’s Creek, so called from the fact that
after the close of the war of 1 8 1 2- 1 5
Col. Peter Scott was sent with his regi¬
ment from Oswego to Albany, and arriv¬
ing at the mouth of this stream, his boats
were frozen in the ice and the troops were compelled to remain there through the winter. Northward along this
creek, varying from half a mile to a mile in width, is Peter Scott’s swamp, some of which has been reclaimed to
cultivation by artificial drainage.”

John Churchill, 1895223

Were it not for the half century time difference, one might suppose it was this same Peter Scott whose name gave
rise to “Pieter’s Hole”, which appears as early as the 1770s.

But reference to James Cockbum’s journal, kept during his 1792 field survey of the Roosevelt Patent, unlocks the
mystery:

“About four miles from Three Rivers is a creek called Peter’s Gaats, the country hereabout is swamp...”

James Cockbum, 1792224

The Dutch term “Gaat”, which is pronounced “got”, denotes a passage or “strait”. This is similar to the English term
“gut”, which is often taken to indicate a narrow water passage. It may have well been the narrow outlet connecting the
swamp to the Oneida River that was intended to be described as the “Gaat”. At any rate, the Dutch terminology seems
appropriate to the spelling “Pieter’s” that appears on maps of the feature, even though Cockbum gives it an Anglicized
phonetic spelling. It is clear that the original “Pieter’s Gaat” became, phonetically, “Peter Scott.”

If, in fact, a Col. Peter Scott was frozen into the mouth of this creek decades later, as suggested by the published
accounts, it would be one of the most bizarre coincidences in New York history.

98

reach a point on the lake , where the bateau could come
and take us, in order to aid in lightening the load in pass¬
ing some other shoals.

In just seventeen days time, the situation at the Oneida Lake
outlet by Fort Brewerton had deteriorated significantly. The
Steven’s family, often noted for their hospitality, had fallen victim
to disease, perhaps brought on by the increasing cold. As well, the
water level over the bar had dropped sufficiently to require the
boat to run up empty, and to continue for some distance into the
lake to find sufficient water to permit reloading.

The soil was very sandy, and sterile, and only fit for
herbage in the low places. We found on the banks a quan¬
tity of fresh water shells, piled up by the fishing birds as
they gathered their food and brought it to their nests. We
were obliged to wade out in the water among the rushes to
reach our bateau, the shore being too shallow to land, even
on this point. This is the greatest difficulty on the north
shore, where they have scarcely found five or six places
where they could land in the whole course of the lake.

The weather being calm, and then the wind con¬
trary, we were compelled to row, and finally at nightfall
arrived at New Rotterdam, having met five bateaux under
sail towards the other end of the lake. Landing at half
past five, we met this time with Monsieur and Madame
Desvatines, and improved a day’s rest in visiting a saw
mill lately erected. The dam not having been substantial¬
ly built, we presumed that it would soon give way, when
the waters arose in the spring time.

However, being perhaps the most dramatic attempt at estab¬
lishing a full-scale commercial and industrial community on the
western navigation route to Lake Ontario, New Rotterdam
deservedly attracted the attention of the French travelers.

We supped and lodged at the log house of Mr.
Scriba. At midnight we were awakened by Mr.
Vanderkemp, a Holland clergyman lately established four
miles from New Rotterdam. He had returned from across
the lake, where he has been to look for limestone suitable
for building, the rock here being only a ferruginous sand¬
stone. He had found some near the mouth of the
Canaseraga, a considerable river that forms the bound¬
ary between the military lots and the Oneida reservation,
and that flows into the lake nearly opposite to New
Rotterdam.

Vanderkemp, a native of Holland, had come to New York in
1788. After exploring much of the inland route in 1792, he had
settled at a site a few miles to the east [Cleveland] earlier in 1793.
His search for building stone, a commodity of considerable rarity
along most of the waterways west of Fort Stanwix, had begun the
year before.

“Towards the south the Canoserago creek, rich in fish, falls in the lake.
The bottom of the Lake at the south side is a greystone - which extends to
the shore - and seems divided in oblong squares. There are appearances,
and very strong indeed, of rock iron, which ore in some parts is extend¬
ing for a considerable length on the shore...”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792

Major DeZeng, who now traveled with this party, had
accompanied Adrian Vanderkemp on his exploration of the area
the year before. In examining the location at the mouth of
Bruce’s Creek, to be occupied the following year by Scriba and
dubbed “New Rotterdam”, DeZeng had spoken glowingly of
the possibilities:

...but do you not reflect on the advantages of that
creek; art thou not convinced by what you have seen, that,
with small exertions to improve it, full-laden Batteaux may
go in and out - may do it actually now. Did your eye not
discover the mill-seats on this creek?

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792225

The imperfect attempts to establish a water-powered mill com¬
plex here, observed by the journalists in 1793, were still little
advanced two years later:

A dozen poor houses, built almost entirely at Mr.
Scriba’s expense, constitute all there is of the city of
Rotterdam... The dams for the use of the mill that he has
built have cost much money, and being always poorly
built, he has been obliged to recommence them several
times. The grist mill is not yet built, and the dam appears
too feeble for the pressure it will have to sustain. Some
work and considerable money has been expended at the
mouth of the creek to make a landing, but the accommoda¬
tion is very poor.

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795226

The batteau landing here remained in poor condition, and the
dream of a bustling port, connected with Lake Ontario by a trans¬
portation corridor that
by-passed the tortuous
journey via Three
Rivers and Oswego,
never materialized.
But a unique and
unprecedented local
industry developed in
the mouth of Bruce’s
Creek in 1792:

We arrived
safe in the creek at
Mr. Bruce’s - in
former days a
Connecticut mer¬
chant, now an Independent Inhabitant of the Oneyda
Lake, maintaining himself by the chase and fishery, and
what he earned from a small potato spot.

He fetched directly, upon our arrival, a fine cat-fish
from a reservoir, constructed from saplings and twigs, so
well twisted, that no escape was possible. He praised him¬
self not a little on his invention, as this magazine supplied
his wants by foul weather, or, as he said, when Bruce was
too lazy to go in quest for other food...

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792228

99

“Desvatines”

It is perhaps interesting to examine the fate of Desvatines and
his family, who had previously inhabited “Frenchman’s Island”
and were just becoming established at Rotterdam in 1793.
Although by no means typical of the settlers who were attempting
to gain a foothold around Oneida Lake in the 1790s, at least in
terms of their noble background, they were bravely facing some of
the same trials and sobering realities, with a poverty of resources off¬
set only by the company of others.

Two years later, another Frenchman touring the region
visited with Desvatines, who apparently survived the winter of
1793 at New Rotterdam. He had gained by then a reputation
as an accomplished gardener, and was encountered gathering
in his potatoes and onions. In recounting to this visitor his
past misfortunes, Desvatines exhibited “in his countenance
and manners some air of distinction.”

“He had for the past three years lived around Oneida Lake, spending one with the Indians, whom he highly
extols. He then settled on an island in the middle of the lake, where he lived alone with his wife and cleared some
twenty acres of land, but for the last fifteen months, he has resided at Rotterdam, where Mr. Scriba has sold him a
hundred acres of land on very easy terms. The instability of character in M. Vatines, according to his own admis¬
sion, has more influenced his changes of residence than any reflecting calculation. He is a man some thirty years
of age, gay, active, always laughing, accustomed to labor, and complains of nothing, but has taken a dislike to
Americans because he says they are faithless in their bargains, and above all that they are always solemn. He
lives, however, on good terms with all the inhabitants of Rotterdam, although he found some among them worse
than others. He aids in their labors, and is helped in turn, and he sells to them as dear as possible, the products of
a little garden which is well cultivated with vegetables.

“His pleasure on seeing his fellow countrymen was extreme, and he wanted to give us everything in his gar¬
den, without receiving a sol. He dreams of nothing but France, and of the moment when peace will permit him to
return to a country that he prefers to all others, though he should there eat nothing but bread. He would rather live
miserably there, than to dwell in any other country, however rich he might there be. This feeling is common with
all Frenchmen.

“He had some books, of which the selection showed to his advantage... He had first sold his jewels, then his
garments, then his linen, and finally was obliged to part with his library, and this at less than half of what it would
have brought in New York or Philadelphia, because the store keeper was the only person within two hundred
miles who could procure the sale, and they went to the benefit of a rich Hollander, who has settled some miles
from Rotterdam.

“We wished to see Madame de Vatines, who is a woman of twenty four years of
age, lively, good, and has eyes of peculiarly sweet and agreeable expression. Like
many other ladies, she appears to love her husband with more tenderness than she
receives. I would not be surprised if there was a little jealousy in play. The light and
flippant tone of her husband might give occasion for this which does not however pre¬
vent him from appearing much attached to his wife. She is the mother of three chil¬
dren, of whom the oldest is some ten years old. She appears bright and intelligent,
makes hay, bread and soap, and does the kitchen work. Yet her hands are yet delicate.

She is at least as tired of America as her husband, and especially is weary of Oneida

Lake. They entertain a project of going to live with some French families. They received us with infinite pleasure,
and were more confident and more at ease with us, they said, in a quarter of an hour, than they would be among
the Americans, although they should live ten years with them. This kind of disgust for Americans, is a very com¬
mon trait with the French, whom we meet in this part of the world.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795229
Although this account suggests the family may have been planning to join Desjardins and Pharoux in
Castorland, it has been suggested by other sources that this family did, a few years later, return to their native
France, to a fate unknown.

100

This primitive fish hatchery began a tradition that has lasted,
on this very spot, for over two centuries.

In addition to an extended visit with Mr. Scriba, it certainly
must have been a novelty for the Frenchmen to also observe the
Oneida Lake legend of the Desvatines family in the making.
Perhaps the members of this expedition saw in the plight of this
French family, thrust into the heart of the American wilderness,
something of the romance and adventure of the New World that
may have more than a little motivated Desjardins and Pharoux.

M. Desvatines presents another example of the class
of Frenchmen who are not enough guarded against ill
fortune in this country. Arriving in America seven years
ago, with over $40,000, a sum which is a fortune in the
United States, where money is scarce, he had gradually
wasted his funds in traveling, and in buying farms for
which he paid two or three times their value.

Seeing his fortune reduced at the end of two years,
he resolved to invest the remainder in trade in order to
gain a fair return, but one fine morning his partner was
gone, carrying money and accounts, leaving him only the
movable goods of himself and wife. The Chevalier De
Goyon advised him in his distress to repair to an island in
Oneida Lake, which was beautifully located, although
uninhabited, and there to form an establishment by him¬
self.

Being without resources, he followed this advice,
came to the island, and began a clearing. He had sold the
most of his furniture, which would have been useless in
the woods, but reserved his library.

He took his wife among the Indians to pass the first
winter, and there spent his time. In the second year his
log house was built, and about six acres cleared, which
promised him support, when Mr. DeZeng,from whom he
had three years before refused to buy a farm, came in the
name of the Roosevelt Company and informed him that
the State had sold these islands, with the land, to this
company, and that he must quit them.

In the meantime, Mr. Scriba, one of the interested
parties, had offered him a lot of land at New Rotterdam,
for which he might pay when able. Our French Robinson
Crusoe, being forced to abandon his island, accepted this
offer, with thanks, and began anew here this last summer.

His house was not quite covered, as no one cared to
help him, because they knew that he had not a single dol¬
lar at his command. This unfortunate man had taken
incredible pains in clearing and building, but altogether
single handed; his wife and children, however, in the
mean time enjoying good health.

Desvatines apparently did not benefit from the reputed com¬
munity spirit of the early American frontier, but was reduced to
relying on the labors of himself and his family. When observed by
the French party late in 1793, his log house was as yet not roofed
with bark, but presumably not from the lack of energy and initia¬
tive observed elsewhere in the West.

“The squares of our houses were up but there was no roof on them. In the
course of ten days we had our log houses fix’t to move into, a blanket for
a door and table cloths for glass to cover the window holes. We moved in
as they were, and we were happy.”

Lewis Beers, 1797230

As Desvatines needed to journey eastward to trade, the mem¬
bers of the expedition looked forward to having further discus¬
sions with him during the remainder of the voyage across Oneida
Lake.

M. Desvatines proposed to go with us in the morn¬
ing, in his canoe, to Fort Stanwix to buy corn. M.
Desjardins paid him four dollars for the skin of a bear,
which he had killed a little time before.

Before they could set out, however, a turn in the weather
afforded the party an extended opportunity to examine the fragile
beginnings of the emerging settlement of “New Rotterdam.”

Friday. Nov. 1st. Mr. DeZeng, having some business to
finish with the Rosevelt Company, the wind being ahead
and the lake rough, we concluded to remain, to the great
contentment of our boatmen. Mr. Vanderkemp spoke a
little French, and we soon formed an acquaintance.

In the morning we were witness of a scene between
Mr. Scriba’s people and M. Desvatines. They abused his
sad condition, while he, soured by misfortune, did not fail
to throw back as much, but we, with Mr. DeZeng, endeav¬
ored to conciliate affairs as well as we were able. We then
went with him into his log house, which was as open as
a cage, and found his wife and three little children as
jovial as cupids. They made the most they could of their
poor barrack, where they would be obliged to spend the
winter, as from all appearances it could not be finished
this season.

We then took a view of the site of the future
Rotterdam. It is upon a moderately elevated sandy
plateau, with a view of the lake and the islands, and at
present consists only of a saw mill and three log houses,
but its location is favorable. Mr. Scriba intends to open a
road from this place to the Little Salmon Creek, which is
twenty four miles by land, will save more than sixty miles
by water, and the tedious navigation of the Onondaga. It
is probable that this will become the route of trade from
the lakes, which cannot fail to give it importance, espe¬
cially if the Little Salmon Creek is navigable, so as to
reduce the portage to six or eight miles as they assured
us. The only trouble is in the landing place, but some
piers would remedy this, and timber is plenty.

In spite of the lobbying efforts of George Scriba during the
coming years, the old inland route to Lake Ontario via Three
Rivers would remain the only one viable, until the opening of the
Erie Canal in 1825.

Although it would never be the international port envisioned
on that first brisk day in November, 1793, Rotterdam [Constantia]
would grow into the only settlement of substance on the interior
of Oneida Lake in the coming years.

From thence we went to see the reserved lands
beyond the creek, which are very good for this country. In
the course of our walk we visited the labors of M.
Desvatines, his future house, and his lot, which is not a
bad one. We encouraged him as much as possible. He has
a couple of cows, which Mr. DeZeng bought for him with

101

It was not because of the land that George Scriba selected the
mouth of Bruce’s Creek for his settlement of “New Rotterdam”,
although suitable land for agricultural production was to be had
in the immediate area. Nor was it primarily the potential mill sites |
just north of the creek’s entrance into Oneida Lake that attracted j
him, although industrial development here was clearly to the
advantage of any subsequent settlement.

Scriba had visions of a landing here at Rotterdam, connected
by a series of navigable waterways and canals to a comparable
landing on Lake Ontario, some thirty miles to the north. It was a !
vision shared with Adrian Vanderkemp by Frederick DeZeng as
they viewed the creek’s mouth in 1792: j

“...can you not see Bateaux ascending Bruce’s creek,
and descending the Salmon creek? - can you not see the furs
and other valuable produce of Canada brought hither,
through the canal? ah! do you not see already various stores i

and magazines crowded with merchandize...” |

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792231 ,

Yet three years later, little could be found here to support this vision:

“The money, which Mr. Schreiber has expended on buildings and roads, is estimated at eight thousand
dollars. If they were constructed on good principles, this money would have been well spent. He is now
building a handsome house of joiner’s work, where he intends to keep a store, in company with two partners...

A store or shop affords here, as indeed it does all over America, the best income which a man can procure, who

incurs a considerable expense in forming a new settlement. Mr. Schreiber, by means of his store, obtains all the

money back, which he expends for his building, etc. He sells his brandy for four shillings and sixpence, flour !

for sixpence a pound, and ten dollars and a half a barrel, for which he pays no more than seven dollars. The

profit he obtains by the sale of other provision, is still more considerable. The land, which eighteen months ago

he purchased for one dollar an acre, costs now three, but is not much sought after. The present settlers come

from New England and the environs of Albany.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795232 j

Scriba’s most ambitious, and perhaps most immediately promising, endeavor was to create a land and water route to
Lake Ontario that would by-pass the river navigation down to Oswego past Three River Point:

“Mr. Schreiber, a rich Dutch merchant, possesses a large tract of land, extending from Lake Ontario to
Lake Oneida. He fixed upon the mouth of Bruce-creek as the site of the chief place, and another settlement he
has formed on Little Salmon-creek, two miles from Lake Ontario. Bruce-creek continues navigable some
miles farther up. Mr. Schreiber has made a road from Rotterdam to his new town; but all these settlements are
yet of no importance.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795233

This roadway, in many ways similar of those being constructed in the more settled areas to the east, was a typical
“one-rod-road”, supplied with the essential log and brush “causeys”:

“...it is however understood that the road must be cut sixteen feet wide and to be cleared of all logs,
stumps, etc. which the passage of the width of sixteen feet might obstruct, and the sticks of the causeways well
and closely laid and so as not to endanger any horse or cattle which passes over the same.” ;

George Scriba, 180 4234 j

The success of this venture depended somewhat on improved navigation west from Fort Stanwix to Rotterdam; a
navigation continually frustrated by the twisting shallows of Wood Creek. Scriba took an active interest, therefore, in the
developments proposed by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, and had suggested, to the Directors of that j

company, a couple routes for canals to by-pass that stream altogether. These schemes never were accomplished, and
Scriba’s shortcut to Lake Ontario, via the Salmon River, never came to be.

Rotterdam Landing

The settlement at Rotterdam, with new street plan
suggested, 1797.

102

the proceeds of some embroidered clothing, which he had
left for sale at General Schuyler’s. His poultry yard con¬
tained a few fouls, and this was all he possessed. He gave
us a piece of bear meat which he had killed, and which
was cooked for our dinner. It is very fat and delicate, but
a little unsavory, yet we found it excellent, as we had not
tasted of fresh meat for a long time. It is a favorite with
the Indians.

Although the fishponds established at Rotterdam in Bruce’s
Creek saved their owner the trouble of harvesting fish in more tra¬
ditional ways, there does not appear to have been a particular
shortage of the catch. When DeWitt Clinton passed along this

shore a few years later, just east of Rotterdam, he reported the
successful use of nets and what may have been the first use on the
lake of an artificial lure:

As we approached Rotterdam, we saw a seine drawn
at the mouth of a small cold brook, and six salmon caught
at a haul. A kingfisher, as large as a hawk, was also flying
about for prey. We amused ourselves on our voyage over
the lake, by trolling with a hook and bait of red cloth and
white feathers, and caught several Oswego bass, yellow
perche, and pikes.

DeWitt Clinton, 18 1 0235

The Batteau

6 4 I "1 atteau”, a French word for “boat”, came to mean in the late 18th century any flat-bottomed craft
B— ^ that was pointed at both ends - the type of boat commonly used in the inland waterways of north-
1 J eastern North America. Here, frequent shallows required a boat that drew little water, even when
fully loaded, could be deftly maneuvered through rapids and around rocks, and was light enough to be lifted out
of the channel and carried over the several portages that blocked navigation into the interior.

The batteau was the mainstay of inland shipping, particularly for the military, until the end of the 18th cen¬
tury. During the French and Indian War, and later the Revolution, fleets of these craft were constructed at the
boatyards in Schenectady, Albany and along the shores of Lake George and Lake Champlain.

Batteaux (the plural) came in different sizes, known generally as 3 handed, 4-handed or 5-handed, according
to the men needed to propel them. There were undoubtedly many variations in design, but all were characterized

by a flat bottom of pine boards
laid lengthwise, with battens
(cleats) nailed across to hold
them together. Oak frames
(ribs), usually made from
natural crooks, fastened the
bottom to the pine planks
which formed the sides of the
vessel. Being so commonplace
a vehicle, built by eye, not
from plans, very little detailed
information has been preserved
regarding batteaux. Although
they occasionally appear in contemporary paintings, batteau images are sufficiently vague to preclude drawing
very specific conclusions about design and construction.

Archeological remains of military batteaux sunk in Lake George in 1758, consisting primarily of bottoms,
fragmentary frames and a few planks, suggest a boat about 31 feet long and 4 1/2 feet wide on the bottom with
a fairly blunt stem and only a moderately raking stem - similar to the drawings above, which were recreated
from remains of one such boat.

During the Revolutionary War, reference is made to batteaux as generally being “thirty six feet long and about
five or six broad in the center, tapering to both ends almost to a point” with sides “about three feet deep” and
attached by “slight knees of timber.” These craft were carvel built, with the boards abutting each other ‘ caulked
with oakum and pitch. However, a significant qualifier was then quickly added: “There is no other batteaux used
in America except on the Mohawk River from Schenectady to Oswego, which is a bad and shallow navigation. A
smaller boat is used, which carries seven barrels, navigated by two and sometimes three men.”236

continued on next page

103

continued from page 103

The “new threehanded batteau” purchased at Schenectady by Philip Schuyler on August 21st, 1792, by
which he would conduct his survey of the Mohawk, would appear to be the direct descendant of these “smaller”
boats which sixteen years earlier had already been established as a unique sub-species of batteau.

An examination of the navigation between Schenectady and Oswego as it existed at the close of the 18th
century reveals the limiting characteristics of the waterway that directly influenced batteau design. There were
over 90 separate and occasionally extensive rifts or rapids on the Mohawk alone, often as shallow as a foot and
frequently under 18 inches. The rivers west of the Mohawk contained still more. The falls at Little Falls and
near Oswego, and the Great Carrying Place at Rome, required lifting the boat out of the river and carting it
overland for distances of up to three miles. The twisting, narrow, and extremely shallow channel of Wood
Creek, between Rome and Oneida Lake, could stop a long or deep drafted vessel in its tracks.

Thus a boat in the range of 20 to 30 feet and 4 to 5 feet wide on the bottom would seem to be representative
of a Mohawk River batteau. The interior depth was probably fairly shallow, if for no other purpose than to light¬
en the craft for portaging. A high-sided boat would not only be unnecessarily heavy, it would impede the work
of the boatmen in the bow, poling the boat upstream. There was little function to a 36 inch deep vessel when it
rarely was able to draw over 15 inches because of the shallow river.

References made by 18th century Mohawk travelers to the batteaux they traveled in are rare. Where they
do exist, however, they suggest a boat less than 30 feet long and barely 24 inches deep. Two construction scows
ordered by Schuyler in 1796 to haul lime to his canal works on the upper Mohawk were to be only “22 or 24
inches high.”237

Commercial Mohawk River batteaux probably had more graceful lines than suggested by the sunken
remains of military batteaux in Lake George. The few 18th century illustrations available, of
which almost none are from New York, suggest at least a moderately raking stem and
stem. Perhaps the most relevant illustration of this vessel is found on the seal of the
Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, carved in 1792. (right)

An illustration of a large Durham-type freighter and what appears to be a
double-manned batteau, observed and recorded on the Mohawk in 1807 (front-
cover), reveals craft that are shallow and have an observable pitch to the sterm
and stem posts. Certainly the working batteaux of the later 19th century, repre¬
sented primarily by the logging batteaux of the St. Lawrence region and interior
New England, had dramatically raking stems and stems. These boats were partic¬
ularly well suited to river running and easy handling.

Whether we see the Mohawk River commercial batteau of the 1790s as part of
continuum from the blunt-nosed military craft of the 1750s to the sleek working
boats of the 1890s, or as a design that undeveloped in reponse to the most
restrictive heavy traffic navigation in the Northeast, we may assume a craft of
modest but pronounced rake, stem and stem, with overlapping side planks a
lighter but still strong construction.

Seal on 1792 stock certificate

104

CH APTER FOURTEEN

Excursion to Oneida Castle

105

Being delayed half the day at Rotterdam, and notwithstanding
having been afforded the chance thereby of making some
educating observations on shore, the party embarked from
the mouth of Bruce’s Creek at noon on November 1st, sailing
toward the entrance of Wood Creek at the east end of the lake.

Having had an early dinner, we set out at noon,
attended by M. Desvatines in his little canoe, which was
broken at the end and took in water from every wave that
passed, the lake being still somewhat rough. He had with
him two men belonging to the settlement, who improved
this opportunity to go and look after some cattle that had
strayed eight days before, and were said to have been seen
at Nine Mile Point.

Besides Mr. Judson, we had in our bateau one of
Mr. Scriba’s carpenters, who had asked passage for pay¬
ment as far as Fort Schuyler. We told him we did not want
his money, but that since he was sick and wanted to go
home, we would cheerfully
take him along. He seemed
astonished at our refusing
his money, and we soon had
occasion to witness another
trait of this character in
Briton, one of our boatmen.

On our return across
the lake he had taken a hard
cold, and this had gained
upon him on the river. With
his half a dollar a day all
summer he had bought noth¬
ing, and his pantaloons of
coarse stuff were badly torn,
so that he was in fact nearly
naked. M. Brunei had a pair
still very good, which he gave
him. He was astounded at
the word give, and asked him
to repeat it several times. Nor
would he accept the garment
until, in the presence of the
two other boatmen, M.
Brunei had declared that he
save them to him, and that
he would never ask anything
for them. Then, being sure of
two witnesses, he accepted the gift, without thanks and
staring at him as a prodigy - nevertheless he afterwards
threatened to quit us on the way.

Traveling in company with Desvatines, who carried the two
farmers from Rotterdam in his canoe, the party of nine in the bat-
teau pushed on, and made plans for a detour by land through
Oneida country.

By constant rowing we reached Nine Mile Point,
where we encamped. We had resolved to land the next

morning at the mouth of Wood Creek, and go to visit the
Indians at their village at Oneida. M. Desvatines induced
us to this course, and gave a note to M. Perrot, a
Canadian who had spent some time with him on the
island and who was now living with Schenando, an
Indian chief.

Being sure of finding an interpreter in the place, we
were decided upon going. From thence we would rejoin
the bateau at Old Fort Schuyler, at the house of Mr. Post,
whose address Mr. DeZeng gave us.

M. Brunei undertook to keep with the bateau to look
after our goods. It was very cold in the night.

On the morning of the 32nd day of their voyage, the expedi- i
tion prepared to divide into two parties, while Desvatines and his 1
two passengers continued along the north shore of Oneida Lake in j
search of the missing cattle.

The boatmen, with DeZeng and Brunei, would retrace their :
navigation of the previous month by passing up the twisted chan¬
nel of Wood Creek to the tavern at Canada Creek, then overland ;
to Fort Stanwix and the Mohawk River. They would next run
down that river to Old Fort Schuyler [Utica], tying up at Post’s :
Tavern to await the arrival of the land party.

Saturday. Nov. 2nd. In the morning the New
Rotterdam men, not having found their cattle, engaged
M. Desvatines to take them further. We accordingly sepa¬
rated, bidding them have patience and courage; qualities
very useful in this country. Started at six, with the wind
ahead but slight, and therefore had to row the nine miles.

It was well that we arrived, for the wind and the waves
arose so that our oarsmen could scarcely gain upon them. ,
We passed the bar with difficulty, the water being very
low, and at half past nine landed at the mouth, quite
chilled through.

In the mouth of Wood Creek, the separation took place. As
the batteau drew out of sight, Pharoux and Desjardins, with
Judson and the carpenter from Rotterdam, turned southward
along the beach to begin an exploration on foot, deep into
Oneida country.

We had much trouble in getting fuel enough togeth¬
er for afire. Being at length warmed, and having break¬
fasted, we bid adieu to our people, who continued their
voyage by water, while we went back about two miles on
foot along the sandy shore of the lake to the mouth of
Oneida Creek, a considerable stream.

Attended by Mr. Judson and the carpenter, we fol¬
lowed along up the stream, crossing it at one place where
we found a canoe fastened to the bank, and on the other
side a bear's head and other traces of a feast, suspended
to a large tree. This was to indicate that there was a coun¬
cil and a great festival at the village, and some hatchets
and blankets hung up also, signified that there was to be
a treaty. The whole were sheltered by branches of ever¬
green trees.

106

The route to be followed ran alongside Oneida Creek, which
entered the southeast comer of Oneida Lake a couple miles south
of Wood Creek. This creek was navigable by canoe, and perhaps
light batteaux, up as far as Oneida Castle, the village of the
Oneidas in this period.

Although this party used a small canoe to cross the stream that
intersected Oneida Creek, they proceeded on foot, following
paths that ran alongside the waterway.

This pleasant invitation led us to follow the path
half a mile further, when we came to the house of Colonel
Lewis, an Iroquois Indian from Canada, who having
taken part with Congress became a colonel. He has set¬
tled at Oneida, where he has an establishment as well fit¬
ted up as the best farm in the country. In fact, we found
some Americans there with pack horses who had come
to buy wheat and corn. His oxen, cows, and horses were
well kept, and his clearing was fine, but we did not find
the owner at home. He had gone to St. Regis, a village
of Christian Iroquois on the St. Lawrence, forty miles
from our lands and the place of his former home.

We were the more disappointed because he spoke
French, and in going frequently to Canada had often
traversed our possessions, and might have given us
some very useful information, and which in part we
had come to obtain.

“For the first time we went into an Indian's house and were surprised at
the degree of comfort and convenience it exhibited. They are longer than
broad and through the building is a large entry or hall on each side of
which are the beds of the family exactly resembling the berths of a ship.
Overhead on poles is hung their Indian corn to dry and all round the
building the skins of different animals. At each end of the entry is a fire
which they burn Winter and Summer and in the middle a pot hangs filled
with a soup made of Indian corn. From this any one who is hungry satis¬
fies himself, they having no stated meal. The only ornament I observed
was a panel opposite to the Suppaan pot on which were painted very
rudely some animals and flowers. On the front of the house similar fig¬
ures are painted.”

William Morton, 1798238

Although disappointed at having missed the opportunity to
consult with the elusive Col. Lewis, the party must have been
heartened, in this strange land, by the welcome they received.

After resting for a time at the house of these kind
Indians, who welcomed us as Frenchmen, we continued
our journey, and three miles beyond came to Oneida
Castle. It is on a great cleared plain almost entirely sur¬
rounded by the river, and the entrance is quite narrow and
closed with a barrier. It would be an excellent place for
natural defense against Indians. On this plateau we found
some American farms and Indian cabins, into some of
which we entered to enquire for the house of Schenando.

“Col. Lewi”

t:

X b

-jhe Canadian Indian “Colonel Lewis”,
whose house was encountered along the
bank of the Oneida Creek by the French
party on their way to Oneida Castle, might have
yielded a very interesting commentary in
Desjardins’ journal, had he not been away from
home on that November afternoon. His name
crops up sporadically in the historical record,
bearing such various spellings as “Col. Louis”,
“Col. Lewi”, “Col. Lue”, and “Col. Looey”,
confirming its French pronunciation.

His name is recorded elsewhere as “Louis
Cook” and his military denotation was not
merely happenstance, nor honorary. It was
formally earned in service to the American forces
during the Revolution. Cook, a Caughnawaga
[Mohawk] chief named Atyatoghhongwen, or
Atayataghronghta, was living at St. Regis
[Hogansburg], on the St. Lawrence River,
surrounded by a native population in self-
imposed exile from the Mohawk Valley and loyal

to the British cause. Yet he was dedicated to the American rebellion and was successful, in the late 1770s, in recruiting
Mohawks to come to Albany to join the American campaign. In the succeeding years Cook became one of Gen. Schuyler’s
three leading Indian officers and received a commendation from Gen. Gates for his leadership against Burgoyne in 1777. It
was Schuyler who commissioned Cook a Lieutenant Colonel in 1779.

continued on next page

107

continued from page 107

Cook, often mentioned only as “Col. Lewis” in the documentation, commanded the Indian force under Col. Willett in
1781 that chased down and killed, along Canada Creek north of the Mohawk, the infamous Tory Walter Butler, who had
pillaged and burned throughout the Mohawk Valley during the later years of the Revolution.

Cook was listed at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784 as “Lieut. Colo. Louis or Atyaoghharongevia”. It was the year
before, in 1783, that Cook may have formed an attachment with the Oneidas, who were then living as refugees along the
banks of the Mohawk in Schenectady, for by the mid- 1780s he was, in many respects, a mem¬
ber of their society. “Col. Lewis” was also present in Chief Schenandoah’s house in 1788 when
the infamous “Plan of Government” was ratified, and which he signed as a witness. He was
held in such esteem by the Oneidas that they appointed him one of the two men to act for their
nation in executing the terms of The Plan.

“Col. Louis Cook, or Atyatoghhongwen, was a St. Regis Chief, who from
hatred to the English, took a decided stand in favor of the colonies in the revolution,
and led off quite a number of Caughnawaga and St. Regis Indians. He lived with the
Oneidas several years, but when tranquility was restored to the northern border he
returned to St. Regis. He participated in all the treaties made by the Canada Indians
relative to lands in New York, and was employed the greater part of his life in the
public service of his people. In the revolutionary war, he received a commission as
Lieutenant Colonel. He again entered the service in the war of 1812-15, at an
advanced age, and died of sickness near Buffalo towards the close of the war.”

Franklin Hough, 1883239

But this story of exceptional accomplishment for a Native American leader in the closing
decades of the eighteenth century takes on even more interest when we read that Cook may not
even have been an Indian:

“On the south side of the lake the Indians, as they are commonly called, or
rather the natives of America, still possess a considerable stretch of land on Oneida
Creek, which forms their border to the east. The place where they reside is called
Oneida Castle. Although they live right in the middle of civilized people, come in
contact and do business with them almost daily, they nevertheless still remain true to
their old dress, lifestyle and customs. Their dress consists of a linen smock or
Beiderwand, which is very similar to a German coachman’s smock; around the loins
they wear a flap of blue woolen cloth 15 to 18 inches wide, and that is their summer
wear. They cover their hair, which hangs down straight in their faces, with neither
hats nor caps; however, I did see some few of their women wearing round felt hats,
and draped with blanquets (woolen blankets).

“The king [chief], I was told, was bred by a white - a German to boot - and a
Negro in Canada; and is consequently a mulatto. However, he conducted himself so
well in the war that the Indians elected him to this important position. His name is
Lewis or Louis.”

Friedrich Rohde, 1802240

The historian. Hough, confirms the African-American heritage, but claims it was a St.
Francis, not a German, who was his mother.

The farm of Lewis Cook stood on the bank of the Oneida Creek, near its mouth, and
apparently served in the 1790s as a batteau landing and trading site, where settlers around
Oneida Lake could obtain com and produce from the Oneidas.

Today the only remnant of the presence of Col. Lewis at the east end of Oneida Lake is
“Lewis Point”, on the south shore near the mouth of Oneida Creek. The derivation of that fea¬
ture’s name had eluded local historians until a clipping was found which revealed the connection:

This map covers the route
of the expedition from
Oneida Lake (top) up the
Oneida Creek to the
Oneida Castle (bottom,
left). The “Colonel
Lewis” homestead is
indicated near the mouth
of Oneida Creek.

“Lewis Point. ..of this romantic place, too much cannot be said in its favor.
Lewis Point was named after a French Indian, Leweye, afterwards called Lewis.”

Madison County Times, July 23, 1876241

The richness of that association was not elaborated, as it apparently was unknown.

108

6A-N6-SOTE

Bark-sided Indian cabin.

In this period, Native American houses had begun to evolve
from the bark-covered longhouse, built of saplings, to the type of
log cabins often associated with White settlement. The mixture of
houses probably seen by the party at Oneida Castle that
November afternoon undoubtedly represented both kinds, as
observed further to the west that same year:

The Indian houses are about twelve feet square, built
some with bark and others with wood, as we build our log
huts. Many of them have chimneys, in which they can keep
comfortable fire, while others retain their ancient custom
of having the fire in the center of the house.

Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1793242

Traditional “cabins” could, however, still be seen in the vicin¬
ity of Oneida Castle three years later, when Jeremy Belknap had
one pointed out to him by the interpreter “Mr. Dean.” This was the
same Dean who had been flooded out of his homestead at “Dean’s
Landing” on the lower end of Wood Creek:

...viewed a house which our interpreter, Mr. Dean,
said was a complete specimen of Indian architecture. It was
made of two rows, each consisting of five posts set in the
ground, which supported the roof. The beams were fas¬
tened by withes to the posts, and the rafters lay on the
beams, projecting downward to stakes fastened in the
ground, which formed the side of the building, and there
fastened with withes. The roof was covered with bark.

At each end of the house was a separate apartment;
one of which served as an entry, the other as a store-room.

In the store-room was a vessel as big as a barrel, and in that
shape, made of bark; also another in the form of a bread
trough. There was also a mortar and two wooden pestles.

In the entry was a pig’s trough, and a few other things
of little worth. Their com is hung on poles inside. There
were four bunks, or raised platforms, on which they sleep;
and two places in the middle where they make the fire, over
which were two holes in the roof for the smoke to go out.

Jeremy Belknap, 1796243

As they entered the village of the Oneidas, the Frenchmen
were able for the first time to observe a Native American com¬
munity in the marginal region between the wilderness to the west
and the White settlements to the east.

Those whom we saw were wretchedly clad, in a
blanket of coarse blue woolen, and were warming them¬
selves around their fires. Their children were entirely
naked, and their figure is exactly like that of the Chinese
whom we see selling curiosities in France under the
name of Pagodas, and they are of the same copper color.
They have their ears cut, and their arms covered with
figures made by pricking with needles and filling with
gun powder.

Earlier that same summer, a party of Quakers, en route to Ohio
to observe an Indian treaty conference, encountered a delegation
from Oneida Castle at the mouth of Wood Creek, including Col.
Lewis and Chief Schenandoah:

This evening, a number of Indians came to our camp,
viz. Col. Lewis, Capt. John, and a very old chief, named
Beechtree, or Kind Doe, and several young warriors paint¬
ed red, with black streaks. Some had their ears cut in
strings, with trinkets in them; and they mostly had bobs of
wampum, metal, or bright shells, hung in their noses.

They had two of their wives with them - each had a
child laced with its back to a board - the front side made of
skins, lined with soft flannel, and a canopy of curious work
like embroidery, overhead - of like workmanship, were the
laces and bandages with which the infant was fastened in -
these they loose with great facility, and take out the babe.
The whole has the appearance of a case, narrow at bottom,
and widens upwards - it is about two feet in length, and has
a bow to the front side of it, to go over the mother’s breast,
when she carries the child.

Jacob Lindley, 1793 244

An 18th century image of decorative ear slitting.

109

“Many of the women brought their children tied up in their cradles,
which are very convenient to be carried, to be set down, or hung up, at
pleasure.”

Jeremy Belknap, 1796245

The scattered settlement of Oneida Castle was nestled in a
bend of the Oneida Creek. To reach Shenandoah’s house, which
was located a short distance to the east, the party had to pass
through the village and along the north side of the creek.

The land that we traversed forms a part of the
240,000 acres which the Oneidas have reserved, and
which are the best in this part of America. The vegetation
is really superb, and we can trace the remains of
orchards, and even of ancient clearings, in places now
lying waste. This country, formerly well peopled, does not
now actually have a hundred Indian families.

After passing through a luxuriant herbage, we
arrived at length at the house of the aged Schenando.
Father Perrot, the Canadian, was no longer there, but we
were not less cordially received as French, and we
claimed to be acquaintances of M. Desvatines. Mr.
Catheliu, a minister whom the State of New York has sta¬
tioned among these people to convert them to
Christianity, came in soon after. He treated us kindly, and
offered to serve us as interpreter. He informed us that Mr.
DeWitt, the Surveyor General, and the State
Commissioner, were then at Oneida for the purpose of
holding a treaty with the Indians concerning the sale
of a part of their lands, and for the opening of a road
with proper accommodations from the Mohawk River
to the Genesee.

Although they had missed both Col. Lewis and Father Perrot,
the members of the expedition would not be disappointed in their
encounter with the great leader Schenandoah, and the visitors who
were constantly drawn to his house.

Schenando and his wife did their best to entertain
us and set before us corn cakes filled with beans of every
color, so that when cut they appeared marbled ; squashes,
a kind of little gourd cooked in water without butter or
salt; and beans cooked with the same sauce. In spite of all
our French politeness, and our appetite, the odious savor
of these dishes did not allow us to taste them. We had
noticed some great wooden dishes full of excellent milk,
and upon asking for this, they gave it freely, and this, with
some very fresh butter, enabled us to master the cakes.

Fortuitously, Desjardins and Pharoux met, in quick succes¬
sion, several people who were able to offer them insights into the
land situation to the north, particularly wilderness areas bordering
the St. Lawrence region and the eastern margins of Lake Ontario.

Soon after, there came to the cabin two half breed
Indians, sons of a Canadian, who spoke a little French
and gave us some account of our lands, as also those
which the Oneidas had given to one M. Penet, who some
years ago, with other Frenchmen, had settled at

Schenectady. Having gone through the Indian villages,
he had made magnificent promises of a profitable trade,
but had left America without paying his debts, and the
very lands they had given him had been seized and sold at
the rate of ten cents an acre, although of the best quality,
and the best located of any in the country. Schenando
showed us some property of Penet’s, and told us that we
should sleep in his bed, which had been left at his house.

The story of this mysterious figure, Penet, perhaps interested
them, he being also a Frenchman and having been granted, by the
Oneidas, a vast tract of land bordering the proposed settlement of
the French Company represented by this expedition.

But if this tale drew their attention more than most, it was not i
revealed in the journal, perhaps because the diversions attending :
their visit at Schenendoah’s cabin continued to increase.

A short time after, an Indian came in, and crouch¬
ing down before the fire, said quite bluntly, “ bon jour
Messieurs Ah, ah, said M. Desjardins, you speak
French very well. “Aussi: le suis je,” he added. We would
not have suspected him, for not only his equipage, but
also his gestures, and even his color, which was very
swarthy, would have passed him off for a native, born
from the deepest woods. He told us that he had come over
to Canada as a soldier, and that the same year, in an
engagement on Lake Champlain, he had been taken a
prisoner by the Oneidas, who had adopted him. He had
remained with them more than forty years, and lived very
contentedly the life of an Indian. We improved the occa¬
sion to obtain some information concerning our pur¬
chase. Schenando, an old man of seventy six years, con¬
gratulated himself on the prospect of having Frenchmen
as neighbors, and told us that the lands along the Black
River were very good, as were also those on the Bay.

The Canadian's son traced for us, with coal upon a
plank, the three routes we might choose in going to Fort
Schuyler on the morrow.

As they stared at the map of the roads running east down to I
Old Fort Schuyler, sketched in charcoal on the board, the party !
might have begun to turn their thoughts toward departure and j
their reunion with the batteau at Post’s Tavern.

But in the meantime, an evening of hospitality awaited them.

At night Mr. DeWitt sent us a quantity of beef for
supper, and invited us in the name of the Commissioners,
and of himself, not to leave in the morning without tak¬
ing breakfast with them. The sight of a quarter of beef
was extremely pleasant to our hosts. We cooked it, ate a
part for supper, and made a feast to them of the rest. After
which, we slept in M. Penet's bed. They gave a bear skin
for Mr. Judson and the carpenter.

During the night, we were somewhat disturbed by
the noise made by the women in pounding their corn in
mortars. Such is the work of these beauties, who having
toiled all day, spend half the night in this tedious exercise,
while their husbands lie sleeping at their ease, having
smoked all day long.

110

Oneida Castle

Three years after the
French party visited
the village in the bend
of the Oneida Creek,
Jeremy Belknap recorded
his impression of the set¬
tlement, and of the home
and hospitality of Chief
Schenandoah:

“We arrived at Oneida
Castle - so called, though
there was no appearance of
a fortification - about three
P.M., and went into the
house of John Skanandogh,
an old chief aged seventy-

six. His house is built in the English, or rather the Dutch style, and warmed in winter by a fire made on one side like
the Dutch houses, with an open space all round, and a kind of funnel above to let out the smoke...

“The chiefs had notice of our coming, and began to assemble in their meeting-house, which is built of logs
and covered with bark. About four o’clock they blew the horn as signal, and we met them. They were not quite
so formal as the chiefs at New Stockbridge, and were willing to enter on business immediately. We held a con¬
ference of two hours, and had several examinations, which we minuted in writing. A tin kettle of water and a
small tin cup served us for refreshment during the conference...

“This village is situate on a high plain; and Skanandogh’s house, on the south edge of it, commands an
extensive and grand view all around. Were the country in a state of cultivation, nothing could be more charm¬
ing than such a prospect; but it is melancholy to see so fine a tract of land in such a savage state. There are in
this village a considerable number of huts, most of which are of logs, some few framed, and several of them
have covered stoops or piazzas in the Dutch style. In the late war their village was destroyed by the Indians and
Tories in the British interest. They had a decent church with a bell, which was built with charitable donations.

This was destroyed. The whole nation removed down the Mohawk River, and encamped on the plain of
Schenectady above the town, where they lived several years, and were supported by the United States. After
their return to their own country, they rebuilt their houses chiefly after the manner of the Dutch, and carried
home some of their customs...

“Lodged this night at old Skanandogh’s on a mattress. Had a supper of tea, milk, Indian cake, fried eggs,
and strawberries. The Indian cake is made by soaking the com in ley, which takes off the hull; then it is pound¬
ed in a mortar; then mixed up with water into the form of a biscuit, and boiled till it becomes of the consistence
of a dumpling.”

Jeremy Belknap, 1796247

One might suspect that the “Dutch” design noted in Schenandoah’s house resulted from the influence of their exile
near Schenectady, where such houses were prevalent. However, a pre-exile journal indicates otherwise:

“...Chief Scanindoe who lives in a good house built in the Dutch fashion...”

Joseph Bloomfield, 1776248

“Of all the languages I have ever heard, none strikes my ear so pleasant¬
ly as the Indian, especially from the mouth of a female. Their accent is
harmonious, soft, and full of music, - swelling, and descending, in a man¬
ner grateful to the ear.”

Elkanah Watson, 1791 246

During their sleepless hours in the cold darkness of Penet’s
cabin, the party might have pondered the differences between
Native society and that of their homeland. This contrast was cer¬
tainly well noted three years later by another traveler in the same
locale:

On the way observed several Oneida ladies preparing
to go out into the fields with their hoes to work in the cool
of the morning whilst their husbands smoke their pipes at
home. On the road we met four or five women, with each
a bag of com on her back, which they had been to
Stockbridge to buy. The bag was hung by a strap round
their forehead.

When the man and woman go together to buy com,
the woman carries the load; and, if they have a horse, the
man rides it with a bag under him, but the woman goes on
foot with her load on her shoulders. The women are strong
and patient and very laborious. Some few of the men, how¬
ever, do work in the field, and the women work with them.

It is to be observed that, in the Indian husbandry, the
huts are placed in the centre of an inclosure, which is greater
or less according to the number of the inhabitants. This
inclosure is a common pasture, in which all their horses,
cows, and swine feed together. Beyond the fence is the
planting ground, and there is no fence between that and the
woods. Some exceptions, however, there are to this general
rule. The Indians of New Stockbridge make their fences, and
separate their fields from their pastures in the English mode.

Jeremy Belknap, 1796249

“I visited some of the huts of the ordinary tribesmen and returned there
later ... but we found only women about. To them is left all the work of
the fields and all the domestic chores. We saw very tall and beautiful girls
digging potatoes and carrying them to their cabins. The men do nothing
but rove about the woods fishing, hunting bears, deer, raccoons, squir¬
rels, etc. They also make distant expeditions to the lakes.”

Julian Niemcewicz, 1805250

This imbalance of specialized labor was frequently cited in
travelers’ journals of the period:

As we passed through their villages, we saw some
women employed in works of husbandry, but very few
men. Among the Indians the husband does not work at all;
all laborious services are performed exclusively by the
wife. She not only transacts every part of domestic busi¬
ness, but cultivates the ground, cuts wood, carries loads,
etc. The husband hunts, fishes, smokes, and drinks.

Duke de la Rochefoucault, 1795251

The next day, having enjoyed a more fruitful visit than they
could have ever expected, the party prepared to depart for the
Mohawk Valley. But first, Pharoux and Desjardins determined to
take advantage of the offer of breakfast in the Surveyor General’s
camp. Perhaps they hoped to gain some advantage or additional
insights by this consultation with the man more responsible than
any other for the surveying, mapping, and eventual allotment of
lands in the unsettled regions of the west.

The building in which this breakfast took place was no doubt
the Oneida meeting house, which stood in the center of the settle¬
ment on lands that would later be reserved as a village square.

State Commissioners. The house where they were holding
the council was on the plain about a mile from our host’s.

Mr. DeWitt presented us to Mr. Caldwell and the
other Commissioners, who made us briefly relate the inci¬
dents of our journey. These gentlemen flattered themselves
that they would be able to conclude terms with the Indians,
but Schenando had assured us that his advice, and that of
the old men, was to sell nothing, and that the Americans
would never be satisfied until they had seized their last
acre; that some drunken chiefs had been gained over, but
that the great majority would hold fast.

We informed these gentlemen what we had heard, but
they replied that this would not prevent them, and that they
had the King, a great chief, on their side. In fact, a moment
after, his Oneida Majesty made his appearance, without
bearing any marked insignia, and clad in a blanket like the
poorest of his subjects. The Commissioners had us shake
hands with his Majesty, who drank a glass of rum to the
health of the French. They then sat down to breakfast, in
the American style, and it was very well served for the
woods. His Majesty, and two or three lords of his court,
modestly seated themselves at the end of the table.

Mr. DeWitt brought us news of the family of M.
Desjardins, who had finally found a house that could be
hired, and gave us the address, for we did not know where
to stop on our return.

The wilderness hospitality proffered the Frenchmen by
DeWitt would not be as forthcoming the following year, when
they visited him in his Albany office:

I saw Mr. DeWitt, the Surveyor General, and having
showed and explained to him the plan, expressed our fears
and our grounds of hope. I also asked his advice, as to our
contract which I showed him, but observed that he avoid¬
ed committing himself on this subject as much as possible,
which I attributed to a fear that he might get compromised
with our grantors, who are Americans, while we are for¬
eigners and can neither be to him so useful or injurious.

Simon Desjardins, 1794252

Sunday. Nov. 3rd. In the morning we left our two fellow
travelers at Schenando’s, and accepted the invitation of the

112

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Road to Whitestown

113

With what was perhaps the richest and most colorful twen¬
ty-four hours of the entire journey behind them, it was
now time for the French party to concentrate on getting
back to the waterways and their rendezvous with the batteau at
Old Fort Schuyler.

After breakfast, Mr. DeWitt returned with us to the
house of Schenando. Not finding him, we begged Mr.
DeWitt to oblige us by giving him for us something for
our expenses. We then left with our two men, and bade
them all adieu.

These men would not again meet with Chief Schenandoah
[Skan-an-doa = “Hemlock”] , even though he remained a figure of
considerable impact in the region, in spite of his age:

In appearance he was noble, dignified, and com¬
manding, being in height much over six feet, and the tallest
Indian in his nation.

Pomeroy Jones, 1 85 1253

He died almost a quarter century later, in the spring of 1816,
at the estimated age of 110.

“I am an aged Hemlock; the winds of an hundred winters have whistled
through my branches; I am dead at the top. The generation to which I
belonged have run away and left me. Why I live, the Great Good Spirit
only knows. I pray to my Jesus that I may have patience to wait for my
appointed time to die.”

Chief Schenandoah, c!816254

A selection of three roads heading to the east had been offered
the party the day before. The choice of one, and the location of its
point of beginning, depended on one of the Frenchmen’s newly
acquired acquaintances.

On meeting with the Canadian Indian, he guided us
to the bridge at the Oneida corn mill, where, after show¬
ing us the road, he left us, with many thanks for the
shilling that we gave him.

It was about ten miles from the Oneida Castle to the
first American settlement. The Indians have no accession
for roads, and never do anything for them. The State has
not yet undertaken any, and this route is therefore almost
impassable. It could scarcely be traced through the woods
by some trees marked here and there; the streams had no
bridges, the swamps no causeways, and the oft used step¬
ping places were nearly impassable. Yet this is the great
route to the Genesee, and to all the western country.

Roads, particularly roads in relatively unsettled regions such
as this, were often little better than paths through the woods.
Travel, under the best conditions, remained an ordeal.

The traveling in the country in the spring and fall of
the year is very unpleasant, as your horse is often from his
knees to his body obliged to founder on through mud and

mire, owing to the depth and richness of the soil, its uncul¬
tivated state, and the want of proper roads.

J.A Graham, 1797255

The Old Genesee Road was certainly no exception to this rule.
Even as late as 1799, one year before the improved Genesee ;
Turnpike replaced the Genesee Road, travel here remained poten¬
tially a nightmare:

...ten travelers came in from the west... the roads,
they informed us, were worse than they had ever been.
Their horses were drenched in the mire to the hips and
shoulders; and the riders were pale, and broken-spirited,
with excessive fatigue.

Timothy Dwight, 1799256

This road, as impoverished of improvements as it may have i
been in the 1790s, represented the best land route to the west for j
immigrants landing in batteaux at Old Fort Schuyler. Access to :
the Finger Lakes and the margins of the Genesee River could be
obtained by this path, without the difficulties of the Upper
Mohawk, the Oneida Carry, Wood Creek, and the Oswego River.

The majority of the people using this road were moving west,
perhaps never to return to what was then the hub of westward
migration - Whitestown:

114

The “Genesee Road”

In 1793, little more than a path connected
the batteau landing at Old Fort Schuyler
[Utica] with the western territories of New
York:

“An Indian road being opened
from this place (now Utica) to the
Genesee country, it is probable the posi¬
tion at Fort Stanwix, and this spot, will
become rivals, as to the site of a town,
in connection with the interior, when it
shall become a settled country.”

Elkanah Watson, 1791 257
Yet for over thirty years prior to
that, a road, or trail, had run from the
batteau landing at Old Fort Schuyler
[Utica] to the Oneida Castle and points
further west. It and appears on nearly
every map of the region from 1756 on.
Evidence suggests that this road fol¬
lowed the line of what would later
become the Seneca Turnpike, and is
today State Route 5.

But in 1793, the road which the French
party followed was well north of that align¬
ment, for they stopped at the Dean’s Tavern on the way, in what is now Westmoreland. This confirms that they followed the
“Great Genesee Road” between Oneida Castle and Whitesborough, on the Mohawk; the middle of three major routes in the
1790s that went to Fort Stanwix, Dean’s Tavern, and Utica respectively. This middle road was later labeled the “Old Genesee
Road” on a map of Oneida Castle, and is clearly located north of the Seneca Turnpike, also indicated on the 1813 map.

By early fall, 1793, Simeon DeWitt, the Surveyor General of New York, was making preparations in Albany for
negotiations with the Oneidas and Onondagas for cessions of land for the new Genesee Road, that would allow for a more
effective land transport between the Mohawk Valley and new settlements west of the Finger Lakes. From his correspon¬
dence we can detect some anxiety about being able to complete these negotiations before winter. At the end of September,
arrangements were being made for supplies of flour to be given to the Indians, as an incentive, with Mr. Porteous at Little
Falls the likely contractor.

An initial meeting at Oneida Castle was held the first of October, but by mid-month DeWitt was back in Albany, ask¬
ing his nephew, Moses Dewitt, for assistance in scheduling another meeting with the Oneidas on the same business.
Although Moses, who lived at Onondaga, had been entrusted with obtaining “supplies of flour & beef,” his uncle states
“Our intention is (unless you have already made provision for it) to employ one of our batteaux, after our arrival at Fort
Schuyler, for transporting the flour we shall want at Oneida.”

Two weeks later, and only two days before the arrival of the French party, Simeon wrote from the Oneida village:

“I have already by my letter dispatched this morning informed you of our arrival. We got some of the
Chiefs together to announce ourselves and inform them that as soon as our batteaux arrived, we would be ready
to enter on business. This afternoon our young gentlemen arrived from the batteaux, having left them at
Loues’s place. Tomorrow morning two canoes with Indians go down to fetch up the baggage we shall want
here .The event of our business is doubtful. We will have strong prepossessions (the result of former councils &
instigations of malicious Whitemen as we conjecture) to combat with. But we will, as is our duty, try to effect
our ends. We have both Deane & Kirkland as interpreters who we hope will render us all the service in their

Continued on next page

115

continued from page 115

power. We would all be glad of your company. Possibly your council may assist in forwarding our views &

facilitate our business.”

Moses DeWitt, 1793258

It was clearly out of this stock of flour and beef, initially brought to Col. Lewis’ landing near the mouth of Oneida
Creek, that the “quarter of beef ’was taken that DeWitt sent to the cabin of Chief Schenandoah and the French visitors.
And it was apparently at the Oneida meeting house, which stood in the central commons of the village, that the State
Commissioners held their negotiations and to which our journalists were invited to breakfast on the 3rd of November.

On November 7th, DeWitt wrote his nephew at Onondaga indicating their business with the Oneidas was completed
and that they would shortly journey on westward by land to begin their negotiations with the Onondagas near Syracuse.

As a result of continuing negotiations during the coming year, the Oneidas ceeded much of their reservation to the
State of New York in 1795, and in 1797 construction on the new Genesee Turnpike was begun. This road [now State
Route 5] ran from Utica, across lands formerly owned by the Oneidas, ending in Geneva on Seneca Lake. The open¬
ing of this improved road west from the batteau landing at Old Fort Schuyler [Utica] in 1800 not only facilitated land
travel west, in direct competition with the old navigation route to Oswego, but it promoted Utica as the destination
for emigrants coming upriver from Schenectady, thus weakening the pre-eminence of Fort Stanwix [Rome] as an
inland navigation terminal.

After breakfast several of us went 4 miles up the river
on foot to Whites Town... it is quite a new settlement but
has the appearance of becoming a place of note, being sit¬
uated in a fast improving Country, and has already in it
large Stores, and the finest Pot Ash works that we have yet

plenty in the Oneida woods; also a substance much resem¬
bling hops, growing on trees. Met with the prickly ash, not
in flower, and passed by many others which our time and
circumstances would not allow us to take.

Jeremy Belknap, 1796261

William Hartshome, 179 3259

“I met on the road to Whites-borough, a group of Oneyda Indians - some
of them on horseback, others walking and jumping - the one with a bot¬
tle, another with a jug or small keg with rum - for the most part merrily
jolly - some deeply soaked by the beverage, distilled from the cane. Their
numbers increased in proportion I approached nearer Whitesborough.
There I saw about two hundred of every age and of both sexes around
their fires near the road, eating, drinking, smoking, singing, laughing, all
then in perfect harmony together, though many a little before had tried
their strength and agility upon one another.

“The occasion of this unusual concourse was, that they came to
receive the corn from the State, which had been stipulated in one of the
articles of the late Treaty. But they soon changed this corn, certainly for
a large part, by the merchants for money, which they changed again for
chintzes, silk hankerchiefs, linen, &c.”

Adrian Vanderkemp, 1792260

It was along this miserable route that the party of four picked
their way. The degree to which the experience was bleak may be
inferred from the lack, in the journal for this period, of the char¬
acteristic descriptions of the flora and fauna along the wayside.

Three years later, Jeremy Belknap made his way along this
road in summer, when conditions were more favorable. He
accordingly had more to offer in his journal:

...the weather very hot, but when we got into the
woods the shade was very agreeable. On our way picked
several flowers and got specimens of some vegetables not
in flower... Found the ginseng and maidenhair in great

Approaching Oneida Castle, Belknap noted the infrequent
depredations of the Gypsy Moth and its impact on the maple sugar
production:

Rode through twelve miles of woods; very fine land,
but excessively bad road. In this route the first runs of
water fall into the Mohawk; the latter into the Oneida Lake,
and so into Ontario. The growth was sugar-maple, beech,
elm, walnut, and oilnut, - the trees very tall and straight; in
the latter part much eaten by caterpillars. When this is the
case with the maple, no sugar can be made from it the next
season. Last season very little, because the caterpillars
devoured them last summer. This has not been known since
the English settled here, but the Indians remember it before.

Jeremy Belknap, 1796262

Traveling on eastward along this rudimentary road, without
benefit of horses or guide, and no doubt wishing for the relative
ease of batteau navigation once again, the party approached a tiny
oasis of civilization located in a swale along a creek, roughly at
the halfway point of their arduous journey.

M. Desjardins, overcome by the fatigue of travel, and
by a fall which abraded his leg against a tree that lay in the
road, could scarcely go farther. We took dinner and supper
at once, at a place called Dine’s tavern. This Mr. Dine, see¬
ing how much M. Desjardins needed a horse, refused to
hire him one for the remaining twelve miles for less than
two dollars, and M. Desjardins, exasperated at this renewed

116

Whitestown

The thriving settlement observed
at Whitestown in 1793, did not
even exist ten years earlier. It
had begun with the arrival of Judge
White in 1784:

“Hugh White... came by
water to Albany, crossed by land
to Schenectady, where he pur¬
chased a batteau, in which he
made passage up the Mohawk
River, to the mouth of the
Sauquoit Creek. Immediately
after the revolution, Judge White
became one of the purchasers of
Sadaqueda Patent, jointly with
Zephanial Platt... Ezra

L’Hommedieu, and Melancthon Smith. By an arrangement between the proprietors, it was agreed that they should
meet on the land in the summer of 1784, and make a survey and partition. Upon the arrival of Judge Platt, at the
mouth of the Sauquoit, a bark shanty was erected for a temporary residence. During the summer the patent was
surveyed into four sections, and the particular section of each owner was decided by lot.”

Pomeroy Jones, 1851263

Even the year before, its astounding rate of growth had been noted:

“I next passed through Whitestown. It would appear to you, my friend, on hearing the relation of events in
this western county, that the whole was fable. And if you were placed in Whitestown or Clinton, ten miles west
from Fort Schuyler, and could you see the progress of improvement, you would believe it enchanted ground.

You would there view an extensive, well-built town, surrounded by highly cultivated fields, which spot in the
year 1783 was the ‘haunt of tribes’ and the hiding place of wolves, now a flourishing, happy situation, contain¬
ing about six thousand people.”

Capt. Charles Williamson, 1792264

The influence of geography on development in this period was so profound that one could travel just a days ride
west, toward Oneida Castle, and find a significantly more primitive situation, even over a decade later:

“We left early and came into completely new terrain. Here in the midst of forests, the enormous height
and thickness of whose trees filled us with astonishment, we came from time to time upon clearings. In these
one sees only the stumps of trees with a little cabin and, in the center of the clearing, on soil the surface of
which was scarcely scratched, a few potatoes, some com, a few chickens and pigs. It was quite surprising to
see coming out of one of these huts good-looking and well dressed women whose white hands draw water from
a hole which serves as a well. When a traveler arrives in this place two or three years hence he will find a fine
house, well-cultivated fields, and all the amenities of life.”

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, 1805265

It was in this same area, that one observer noted in some detail the process by which the virgin forest was initially
rendered livable at the hands of isolated families in search of land:

“When a family have come to a resolution to settle in this country, the husband, that latter end of summer,
repairs to the spot where the settlement is to be made. The first thing he does is to cut down the small trees on
one or two acres; he next barks the larger trees, and then sows a little rye or wheat. Of the wood he has felled,

continued on next page

117

continued from page 117

he constructs a small house, and makes suitable fences around it; a labor, which may be performed in about a
month’s time. He then returns to his former habitation; and, at the beginning of spring, he brings his family and
the best of his cattle to the new settlement. His cows cost him little, being turned into the woods to graze: he
then finishes his house, plants potatoes, sows Indian com, and thus is enabled to provide for the first year’s
maintenance. While thus employed, he is at the same time clearing more ground, burning the trees he has
already felled, and, as far as may be, even those which he has barked. By this process the roots of the bushes
are in great measure destroyed; yet they require to be more carefully grubbed out of the land, which is to be
thoroughly cleared. The ashes afford a very useful manure, and, in the opinion of the best judges, are employed
this way to much greater advantage, than when converted to pot-ash...

“Thus, within the space of twelve months, a man may clear fifteen acres; and few families cultivate more
than thirty... The stumps of the felled trees, generally two or three feet high above the ground, hardly rot sooner
than the barked trees, which have been left standing on the lands. The dwellings of new settlers are commonly at
first set up in a very slight manner; they consist of huts, the roofs and walls of which are made of bark, and in
which the husband, wife, and children pass the winter, wrapped up in blankets. They also frequently construct
houses of trees laid upon each other; the interstices of which are either filled up with loam, or left open, according
as there is more or less time to fill them up. In such buildings as have attained to some degree of perfection, there
is a chimney of brick or clay; but very often there is only an aperture in the roof to let out the smoke...”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795266

exhibition of avarice, resolved to go on foot in the morning
as far as the next place, where he might hope to procure
one. The usual hire of a horse is four shillings a day.

Here they had crossed again the trail of James Dean, the inter¬
preter. Eight years earlier Dean had been flooded out of the grant of
land given him by the Oneidas on Wood Creek. It was there, at what
was thereafter always known as “Dean’s Landing”, that Pharoux and
Desjardins had bid farewell to the contractor for the Western Inland
Lock Navigation Company, whose batteau had helped them get over
the shallows coming down from Canada Creek.

It was to this parcel here on the Genesee Road that James
Dean had relocated in 1786, having secured a generous grant from
the Oneidas to replace the one on Wood Creek. And it was his
brother, Jonathan, who had built across the stream and now main¬
tained a tavern on the spot.

It was probably no accident that this stream, thereafter known
as “Dean’s Creek”, included a waterfall, which was shortly devel¬
oped by Dean into a mill site. The grist mill which he operated
here, coupled with his occasional services as an Indian language
interpreter, provided him with relative wealth and a measure of
political power.

“Mr. James Deane, who lives at Westmoreland, four miles this side of
Oneida, is a man of education, sense, and independent way of thinking;
has spent many years among the Indians; is personally acquainted with
the principal Oneidas. ...In estimating his opinions, some allowance must
be made for the influence of that disgust which he appears to have taken
against the aboriginals. If Mr. Deane will be interpreter, he will be accu¬
rate and faithful, or, if he cannot act himself, he will tell of a good one.”

Samuel Kirkland, 1796267

Forced to endure a night under the roof of a tavern keeper of
dubious hospitality, but the only one in the vicinity, the party
pushed on the next day along the unfamiliar route.

Monday. Nov. 4th. Started in the morning, but M.
Desjardins, who was suffering from his leg, could scarce¬
ly get two miles to the next house, where we stopped for
breakfast and procured a horse for a dollar and a half.
Our shoes were torn in the woods so that they would
scarcely stay on our feet, and we had to tie them on with
straps of Moosewood bark.

As we advanced, the country was better settled, and
the inhabitants had from necessity made the roads more
passable. The bridges over the creeks, and log causeways
across the marshes, rendered the road, if not good, at
least passable.

It may have been well that these improvements were recently
made, as maintenance was often neglected.

In addition to all these evils, the causeys, which I
have heretofore described, abound, of course, on every
miry surface. These, you will recall, are made of round,
smooth poles, and therefore furnish, at the best, a very
imperfect footing. Some of them are soon displaced, and
others broken. The inhabitants, in the mean-time, are so
few, so poor, and so much occupied in subduing their
farms, and in providing sustenance for their families, that it
is often a long time before these bridges are repaired. Such,
upon the whole, was the state in which we found them....

Timothy Dwight, c.1795268

118

As the party of four continued walking northeasterly along the
Genesee Road, with the injured Desjardins on horseback, they
began to see evidence of the expanding settlement that was push¬
ing westward from Whitestown, on the Mohawk.

We traversed the greater part of the Whitestown set¬
tlement, which was begun only seven years ago, and has
already more than seven hundred houses. The log hous¬
es already begin to give place to houses of light carpenter
work, lined with plank and again covered; a very good
substitute for stone. They are painted externally in oil
paints. These slight dwellings are cheap when saw mills
are near, and they present a very neat and cheerful
appearance. Their only inconvenience would be that they
could not keep out the cold in winter.

We passed a number of saw mills, on the Oriskany
Creek and other little streams, a forge, and several potash-
eries. The latter, with the saw mills, have contributed won¬

derfully to the growth of these settlements. The soil is com¬
monly good, but not extraordinary for fertility.

The improvements extend about seven miles in
length, along the road leading to the chief place. We
crossed the Oriskany, on a bridge of solid timber work.
The soil here changes its quality, and spreads out into a
wide sandy plain, nearly level, and crossed on one corner
by the streets of the future town, that already begins to be
adorned with houses scattered here and there, among
which may be seen the Court House, Presbyterian
Meeting house, the houses of Judge White and other
founders of the place, all of whom are Yankees, or men
from the New England States.

We stopped at a tavern of very neat appearance,
where we drank rum mixed with milk. They call this drink
Milk Punch, and as lemons are unknown in the country,
it is the great beverage of the inhabitants. We did not,
however, find it much to our taste.

119

120

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

At John Post’s Landing

121

After a grueling march over the Old Genesee Road that had
lasted a day and a half, the four men gazed off to the north
to see the glistening ribbon of the Mohawk once again.
Although it had been just three days since they had left the rest of
their expedition at the mouth of Wood Creek, the richness of their
experiences, coupled with the hardship of their overland excur¬
sion, must have made it seem like a week.

They were undoubtedly anxious to be reunited with their bat-
teau and to spend the rest of the journey sitting in a boat that
would glide effortlessly down the Mohawk to Schenectady. They
were also undoubtedly surprised to find that, in spite of their ardu¬
ous detour through the forests of the Oneida Reservation, they had
still arrived at the landing ahead of their boat.

At two o’clock we arrived at the house of Mr. Post,
at old Fort Schuyler, four miles from Whitestown, at the
place appointed for our rendezvous. Our bateau had not
yet arrived. We took dinner and supper at this place, and
looked into his store, which was well stocked and a
favorite place for tipplers and customers.

As with many settlers who chose to build at strategic points
along the inland waterways in this time, John Post had thrust upon
him the role of tavern keeper. His daughter, years after, recalled
this circumstance:

As ours was the first house which could accommo¬
date travelers, a sign was put up, though reluctantly, and
my father kept tavern no longer than until some one with
means could be prevailed upon to leave a more privileged
place to settle here, for the sole purpose of keeping a
tavern.

Mrs. Petrie, cl 85 1 269

Post had come here by batteau, with his family, in the spring
of 1790. Previous to that, he had been in partnership with a
Schenectady merchant, and engaged in trade with the Indians for,
among other things, Ginseng or “Mandrake”. This wild root,
which was often encountered in the woodlands to the west, was a
valuable export commodity in the 1790s, particularly to China,
where it reportedly was considered superior to their local variety.

“The lands through which we passed this day are all highly cultivated,
and loaded with a luxuriant growth of wheat, rye, oats, and peas. Hops
grow wild along the margin of the river and run over the bushes. There
is a fruit called mandrake, very plenty in all this tract and above. It grows
on a stalk from twelve to fifteen inches high, under a canopy of leaves. It
has a fine smell, and some people are fond of it. Gooseberries and black
currants are also very numerous. Some of the gooseberries are half ripe
and have prickles on the fruit.”

Jeremy Belknap, 1796270

The grassy riverbank between Post’s cabin and the batteau
landing served, throughout this era, as a sort of camping place and
staging area for people disembarking from their boats here, and
for those going and coming between this place and Fort Stanwix.
Desjardins and Pharoux availed themselves of this area twice
more, the following year, as they passed between Schenectady
harbor and their lands on the Black River:

At five in the evening, we finally arrived at the bridge
at old Fort Schuyler, where I unloaded the batteaux and
pitched the tent on the river bank in Mr. Post’s yard. The
batteaux returned at once to Schenectady, so that they
might be ready for the surveyors on their arrival. The tent
being pitched, we changed our linen, but not without
annoyance from curious spectators, who came to look into
the tent, and under the sails and tarpaulins, with which we
had covered our provisions. When wearied with this imper¬
tinent curiosity, I asked them what they wanted. They very
quietly replied, “to see.”

...we pitched our tent on the bank of the river, to store
our things and lodge ourselves, preferring our own blan¬
kets and a board, to the tavern beds, where filth and vermin
reigned.

Simon Desjardins, 1794271

By coincidence, the party in 1793 met someone at the tavern
who was very familiar with the lands along the Black River.

He introduced us to Mr. Boon, a Hollander, who
had been some time in the country, where he has bought
some patents near the Baron Steuben, and not far from
our lands. He informed us about the Steuben road, which
runs within three miles of the Black River, and said six¬
teen miles had been built, but that the route was in a very
bad condition. The Baron had, a little before, gone down
to New York, and we therefore gave up the journey, but
resolved to make the acquaintance of our estimable
neighbor in New York. He assured us that much expense
had been incurred on these patents, and that all the lands
were good.

Exactly one year later, in October of 1794, the Frenchmen
would have an opportunity to visit Boon’s settlement [Boonville],
some 30 miles to the north, and be impressed by its progress:

Boon’s... We found this settlement greatly advanced,
and his house of five windows in front and two stories high
is entirely finished, wainscoted, glazed, etc. The farm
buildings, gristmill and sawmill are finished, and sixty
acres of land cleared: all the work of eighteen months, but
at an abundant cost of money.

Simon Desjardins, 1794272

Their interest in Boon’s lands derived from their proximity to
the headwaters of the Black River and the proposed French devel¬
opment. They might have wished to consult with von Steuben
about his road, which could serve as an alternate route into their
lands, by-passing many long miles of difficult navigation. The
Baron was then the most famous, and perhaps influential, land¬
holder in the region they hoped to inhabit.

Frederick William Baron Von Steuben had acquired the land
grant north of Post’s landing in 1786, in recognition of his service
during the Revolutionary War. Known as the “Drillmaster of the
Revolution”, he was credited with introducing the discipline that
turned the American rebels into an army. By 1793 he had established

122

“Old Fort Schuyler”

From the time of the French and
Indian War, and no doubt long
before that, a ford across the
Mohawk River existed where Utica
would later be located. In 1758 Fort
Schuyler, named for the uncle of
Philip Schuyler, was erected just
below this point to guard the cross¬
ing, which provided access from the
trails which came down from the
west to the road which ran along the
north side of the river toward Albany.
The site of the fort here had long
served as a landing place, but it was
many years before a commercial
building was erected:

“At Utica there was a small frame store of old John Post, an Indian trader, and a large log house kept
as a tavern.”

Jared Broughton, 1790273

Post was one of several merchants who in this period established frontier trading posts as western -extensions of
commercial enterprises operating at the port in Schenectady:

“John Post, the first merchant in what is now Utica, was engaged for some years previously to 1790, in con¬
nection with Mr. Martin, of Schenectady, in trading with the six nations, particularly in the purchase of ginseng,
then exported in large quantities to China, as a supposed remedy for that fatal disease the Plague.... In the spring
of 1790, having purchased and leased real estate near old Fort Schuyler, upon Cosby’s manor, he removed thither.

With his wife and three infant children and a carpenter, placing a stock of merchandize, furniture, provisions and
building materials in boats, he embarked upon the Mohawk at Schenectady, and in eight or nine days landed at his
new home. So deep was the mud in the road, now Genesee Street, that the children had to be carried to the log
palace previously erected, where they all arrived cold and uncomfortable...

“At first Mr. Post kept his goods for sale in his dwelling, but in the next year (1791) he erected a building for
a store, where he had extensive trade with the Indians and the early settlers of the surrounding country. Of the
Indians he purchased furs, skins and ginseng in exchange for rum, paints, cloths, powder, shot, ornaments of vari¬
ous kinds, beads, small mirrors, etc., etc. It was a common occurrence that thirty or forty Indian men, women and
children remained at his house through the night, and if the weather was cold they occupied the floor in front of
the immense kitchen fire of logs, but in the summer they lodged in the bam, or... lay upon the grass plats by the
side of the log and brush fences...”

Pomeroy Jones, 185 1274

Years later, Post’s daughter recalled the mode of the accommodations offered by her father:

“In those days men in that business were very independent, and if travelers or ‘movers’ wished to ‘put up’
at a tavern, they had to help themselves, water their own horses or oxen, harness or yoke them again, and if
they asked to be served with aught, the landlord or his family would sometimes ask ‘who was your waiter last
year?’ Sometimes, if persons did not look well to themselves, they received rough words and usage from these
back- woods landlords.”

Mrs. Petrie, cl 851 275

continued on next page

“At Utica there was a small frame store of old John Post, an Indian
as a tavern.”

123

continued from page 123

At the close of the eighteenth century, Post had become well established, and was engaged in running a line of
Durham boats on the Mohawk:

“Mr. Post erected a warehouse of wood, three stories high, upon the river, and afterwards another of
brick, which stood a few rods above the Mohawk bridge... He owned several boats which were employed dur¬
ing the season of navigation in taking produce, etc., to Schenectady, and bringing back merchandize and the
families and effects of persons removing into the new country. After a while he fitted up three stage-boats,
the Accommodation, the Diligence and another, with oil-cloth covers, seats, etc. for the accommodation of trav¬
elers between Utica and Schenectady, who preferred this mode to wagons and afterwards stages, over rough and
muddy roads.”

Pomeroy Jones, 185 1 276

These converted Durham freighters were the forerunners of the Erie Canal packet boats to ply this route some years
later. Although most accounts suggest they only made round trips between Schenectady and Utica, at least one primary
source indicates they could go as far as Montreal. Their description matches the woodcuts in an 1815 advertisement print¬
ed in Schenectady (below):

“I will add, as a matter of curious history in the travel of the Mohawk Valley, that about the year 1815, Eri
Lusher established a daily line of packet boats which were constructed after the model of the Durham boat, with
cabin in midship, carefully cushioned, ornamented and curtained, expressly calculated for and used to carry from
twenty to thirty passengers at a time, between Schenectady and Utica, making the passage between the two places
down the river in about thirteen hours, and up the river, with favorable wind and high water, within two days.”

John Sanders, 1879277

In spite of his strategic location and his diversifica¬
tion into shipping as well as trade, Post’s unprecedented
enterprise on the bank of the Mohawk was not without
risk:

“July 13, 1792, Mr. Post purchased ... eighty-
nine and a half acres... and he had a lease of twenty-
five years of a small piece... where his store stood.

Doing an extensive business, he was apparently pros¬
perous, and doubtless in a few years amassed a con¬
siderable property. He had taken as a partner his son-
in-law... and in making collections they had received
a large amount of wheat, pork, etc., to take to mar¬
ket, with which, and a large sum of bank notes,
they intended to purchase largely for their several
stores. This was in 1806 or 7, and a most disastrous
fire swept away the whole, goods, money, etc., in a
few minutes. Not more than $100 of the whole was
saved, and Mr. Post was ruined...”

Pomeroy Jones, 185 1278

This broadside advertises the new service between
Schenectady and Utica using converted Durham boats.

NEW LINE

124

Baron von Steuben’s cabin as it appeared in the 1790s.

a homestead with a modest cabin, and a water-powered mill, and
had hopes of inducing other homesteaders to settle around him.

Although he held no lands along the Mohawk River, by 1793
von Steuben had established a temporary batteau landing a short
distance west of Post’s, apparently in the mouth of Nine-Mile
Creek. Its existence above Whitestown was recorded in the
account of a traveler passing up the Mohawk a few months before
the French expedition:

After breakfast several of us went 4 miles up the river
on foot to Whites Town... At 4 P.M. stopt at Baron
Steuben’s Landing on the north side of the river, from
which to his house we were informed the distance was 7
miles and 9 to Fort Stanwix.

William Hartshome, 1793279

The opportunity to meet with Von Steuben to discuss matters
of mutual interest appears to have been lost, as on November 28th
of the following year he passed away.

The Frenchmen may have wished for more information about
this landing, and the road that ran north to the upper fringe of the
Black River watershed. But for the time being, they had to con¬
fine themselves to more immediate problems.

In the evening, a Canadian named Francois
Sabourin, who was working for Mr. Post by the month,
came to seek our aid. He could not speak a word of
English, and was accused by an enceinte girl. We took
much pains to console him on this taint attached to his
honor, and finally he consented to remain with Mr. Post
and let the charge rest , although he could hardly per¬
suade himself that this would be the last of it.

It is unfortunate the journalists, forced to spend an evening at
the landing, did not record more in detail of the place. Their atten¬
tion was entirely drawn to the new bridge crossing the Mohawk;
a novelty in this region as well as a structure of potential service
to them in the future.

Tuesday. Nov. 5th. We began to be uneasy about our
bateau. Went to look at the bridge built over the Mohawk
opposite Mr. Post’s, and which leads to the road going to
the Baron Steuben’s settlement, and consequently to the

Black River.

This bridge, built after the English manner, is the arc
of a circle with a very moderate curve, and is supported by
beams made like a St. Andrew’s cross, and covered above
with plank. The bridge has already bent from the curve
first intended, and inclines to the oval, an effect due as
much to the framing as to the quality and smallness of the
timbers, which are of pine and fir.

The main support, which they have put in the middle,
would rather tend to its entire destruction, when the ice is
going off. The abutments are of timber and are also settled,
from miscalculation of the resistance, the one on the south
side being built upon ground that is full of springs.

This bridge has been built but a short time, and was
erected by a country carpenter. We asked Mr. Post why,
when they had such a work to execute, they did not
employ an engineer or architect to draw a plan and the
details, which a carpenter might then easily execute. He
replied that this was not the custom, and that no carpen¬
ter would be willing to work after the plans of another
man. He however appeared mortified at the probable fall
of his bridge which we predicted. It had indeed cost but
little, thanks to his management, but economy in such a
work is not always reasonable.

Another, less critical, viewed this same bridge a short time ear¬
lier with a kinder opinion:

At Fort Schuyler we found another bridge thrown
across the river, which is here about one hundred and
twenty feet wide when the waters are within the banks.
The workmanship of the bridge does great credit to the
ingenuity of the workman, as the arch extends from shore
to shore.

Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 179 3280

Before the discussion with Post regarding the ad hoc engineer¬
ing of the new bridge could get any more heated, the batteau arrived
from the west, bearing DeZeng and Brunei and the crew of three.

This bridge might well have interested Brunei further, as he
was versed in the mechanics of construction and would later
become one of the leading engineers in England. He may well
have concurred in the opinion of his friends that this bridge was
poorly built and at risk of failure.

All had the bitter-sweet satisfaction of having their suspicions
confirmed when, the following spring, the bridge did collapse and
had to be entirely rebuilt.

But the delays imposed by the late arrival of the batteau pre¬
vented any further examination of the structure during this trip.

Our bateau finally arrived at ten o’clock, and M.
Brunei informed us that he had experienced the greatest
difficulty in ascending Wood Creek, where there was so
little water that they had been obliged to drag the bateau
along the channel with oxen.

Had the journalists remained with the batteau at the mouth of
Wood Creek, we may have gained some telling insights into the

125

near impossibility of ascending the channel late in the year, when
lack of rain reduced the waterway to a few inches over logs and bars.

Such was the fate of any boat coming up Wood Creek in the
low water season:

Batteaux which ascend the creek, at this season, are
dragged by horses, traveling in the water, and frequently
the descending boats; which is a work of incredible fatigue
and difficulty

Elkanah Watson, 1791 281

The ordeal of getting the boat from the east end of Oneida
Lake to Post’s, via Fort Stanwix, no doubt was related to
Desjardins and Pharoux in some detail by Brunei. It apparently
made an impression. Although the party again used batteaux to j
transport their baggage and equipment up the Mohawk from j
Schenectady the following year, they disembarked at Post’s j
Tavern and, using the landing there as a staging area, proceeded j
north by wagon to their lands.

The delays in ascending Wood Creek were increased as the i
larger Durham boats began to come into the system after the
opening of the Rome Canal in 1797, which eliminated the j
portages along the Mohawk route. These boats came east from >

The Wood Creek Locks

The problems encountered by the French party, in bringing their boat eastward up Wood Creek, were typical of those
experienced by navigators in this period:

“...the difficulty of ascending was still greater; the boat was unladen at Canada creek, and, as the state of the road
would not admit of its conveyance by land, oxen were applied, and by main strength dragged it along the bed of the
creek, to the great detriment and injury of the boat.”

Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, 1798282

The conditions of passage on Wood Creek continued to frustrate navigators until 1803, when the Western Inland Lock
Navigation Company began installation of four wooden locks between Rome and the Canada Creek junction. Schuyler him¬
self made the initial inspection the previous year:

“I left Canada Creek, on the 25th of last month, and aided by a flush of water from the canal at Rome, I
reached the Oak Orchard at half past ten, after a tedious passage of two hours and a half, and notwithstanding the
increase of water from the canal at Rome, I found the intermediate distance so shallow, and the bed of the Creek
so filled with sunken timber as fully confirmed me in the opinion I have formed on a former view that locking it
was the only efficient means of rendering it a competent navigation.

“From the Oak Orchard, to the [Oneida Lake]... the shallowness of the water in the creek, the sunken timber,
and the many sand bars, I found almost infinitely beyond what I had been led to believe. If the sunken timber was
taken out of the bed, if the heaps of it, which are collected in many places, were removed, several of the sand bars
would be carried into deep pools (which are frequent) when the freshets prevail, the navigation would be so
improved as to afford a passage for half laden boats only to ascend to the intended lock at the Oak Orchard in all

continued on the next page

126

continued from page 126

the months subsequent to June, and until the autumnal rains prevail, and swell the waters of the Creek... when
they might again bring full cargoes, but as the large Durham boats and batteaus of equal burden, now come
fully laden from the falls between the Cayuga and Seneca Lake, and from the salt works at Onondaga at every
season, as far as Dean’s Landing, the ascending from thence with only one half of their cargoes to the intended
Lock at the Oak Orchard, when that shall be completed, and then returning to bring forward the remainder, will
continue a charge on the transportation very much beyond such a toll as would be an adequate compensation to
the company for passing the Locks. If Wood Creek was locked in all its extent, from Dean’s Landing to the
canal at Rome, I am therefore clearly of opinion that it is equally the interest of the company, and of the coun¬
try, that two more locks should be constructed, between the intended one at the Oak Orchard and Dean’s
Landing. This done, with the trifling expenditure herein after mentioned, on the Onondago and Seneca Rivers,
we should have a compleat navigation for fully laden boats, even larger than the largest Durham boats now in
use, from the falls between the Cayuga and Seneca Lakes.

“On the 30th I crossed the Oneida Lake and ascended Wood Creek to a hut, four miles from the lake. On
the 31st at day break we began the arduous task of ascending the Creek.. In doing this the boatmen were for a
great part in water, dragging the boat, and altho aided by a flush of water which met us when we arrived at the
Oak Orchard & which had been sent down with two descending boats. It was near six in the afternoon before we
arrived at Canada Creek having stopped only one hour to breakfast, the distance come 13 1/2 miles.”

Philip Schuyler, 1802283

Over a decade earlier, Watson had suggested dam and lock combinations as part of the solution to the myriad prob¬
lems of navigating Wood Creek:

“From a superficial view of this important creek, it appears to me the great difficulties may be surmounted: -
first, by cutting away all the bushes and trees on its banks. Second, by cutting across the necks, and removing all
sunken logs and trees; - and lastly, by erecting substantial sluices, or inclined planes, at given distances, so as to
continue a head of water from sluice to sluice. This creek, in its present state, may be considered a natural canal,
from ten to twenty feet wide. If sluices were erected only to the height of the banks, with small locks, or inclined
planes, it is probable they would be sufficiently high, and they could be well done, I am persuaded, for fifty
pounds each.”

Elkanah Watson, 1791 284

Even with the virgin timber right at hand at each lock site, one might wonder why wood was used here, in 1802,
when in the same year the decayed wooden locks at Little Falls were being replaced with stone. DeWitt Clinton, in retro¬
spect, suggests an answer:

“In a well timbered country, a wooden lock of the usual size can be constructed for $150 a foot... Wooden
locks will last 15 years - besides their great cheapness, they are preferable on account of their being susceptible
of repair in winter and of being rendered perfectly water tight.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1825285

But these wooden locks were not the first such devices to be placed in Wood Creek to overcome the obstacles to
navigation it presented. During the French and Indian War (1758-63) a series of timber dams, with gates, allowed the
fleets of military batteaux to pass the shallows above Canada Creek:

“We passed, on the north side of the creek, the appearance of an old fortification, called Fort Bull. The
remains of an old dam, to impede the passage of a hostile fleet, and to assist the operations of the fort, were
also to be seen. Although there is now a road on that side of the creek, yet in those days there could have been
no marching by land with an army. The transportation of provisions must have been impracticable by land; and,
indeed, the general appearance of the country exhibits a sunken morass or swamp, overgrown with timber and
formed from the retreat of the lake.”

DeWitt Clinton, 18 1 0286

Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, and out of Onondaga Lake loaded
with salt.

Sensitive to the adverse impact poor navigation would have
on his dreams of a commercial center at New Rotterdam,
George Scriba petitioned the Directors of the Western Inland

Lock Navigation Company in 1805, using examples from his
own experience:

I ascended Wood Creek with a three handed batteau
having four hands on board. We left Jackson’s [Sylvan
Beach] at six o’clock in the morning, and although the

127

The “Shunpike” Schemes

From the earliest years
of the turnpike era,
people devised by¬
pass routes called “shun-
pikes” that departed from
the main road and followed
a detour to avoid payment
of tolls on the improved
highway. It was in the
opening years of the nine¬
teenth century that a form
of waterway “shun-pike”
developed east of Oneida
Lake, following a route

similar to that taken by the Frenchmen on their foot expedition in 1793.

Boatmen running east over Oneida Lake after 1800, to avoid the frustration of Wood Creek and the tolls of the
Rome Canal, conspired to take their boats up Oneida Creek, which was sometimes navigable as far as Oneida Castle.
Here they could off-load cargoes into freight wagons, which used the newly completed Genesee Turnpike [State Route 5]
to run these goods down to the landing at Utica. There, the Durham boats that regularly ran between Utica and
Schenectady took on the freight and completed the shipment:

“The canal at Rome is expected to become completely abortive and useless... from a concerted plan by
Mr. Williams & others of diverting ... the navigation of boats coming from the West into the Oneida Creek,
which is a good boatable stream, to unload near the Oneida Castle - their cargoes to be transported thence over
the Turnpike to Utica 25 miles.”

Elkanah Watson, 1800287

Even those boatmen using Wood Creek, and coming up as far as the Canada Creek Junction at Gilbert’s Tavern,
found ways to avoid full payment on the Rome Canal:

“...from the exorbitant tolls and ... from the impossibility of proceeding with loaded boats from Canada
Creek to the said Canal ... most of their cargoes have been transported that distance (viz 6 miles over land) by
Mr. Gilbert, and unloaded 1 to 2 miles below the lock on the Mohawk River ... so that the greater part of the
boats have passed through empty, and paid accordingly, and the company in consequence deprived of the
tolls... A remedy must be applied - or this noble canal must be abandoned altogether, and with it an immense
expenditure. The canal at the Little Falls and consequently the one at German Flatts must also become useless,
and totally unproductive unless immediate measures are taken...”

Elkanah Watson, 1800288

This network of land and water forwarding, made possible only by the new turnpikes, threatened the commercial
viability of the canal company, thus necessitating the further improvements in Wood Creek in 1802 and 1803. But even
after these improvements were made, the rest of Wood Creek continued to be a bottle neck for shipping:

“By information which I obtained the next year, sudden freshets having come on destroyed several hun¬
dred barrel salt and flour left thus in Wood Creek. On the 12th October of the same year, after having had pre¬
viously several heavy rains, I ascended Wood Creek with a three handed batteau having four hands on board.

We left Jackson’s at six o’clock in the morning, and although the water was tolerable good in Wood Creek, we
did not reach the Oak Orchard before five o’clock PM. Fine weather and moon shine at the time brought us at
9 o’clock that night at Gilbert’s.

“These difficult passages down & up Wood Creek every year experienced, and the heavy complaints of
that so difficult navigation which with a cargo of from 12 to 24 barrels makes it still worse, and takes much
longer time - drew my attention to investigate these difficulties with more attention.

“In the year 1803 I again descended from Gilbert’s to Jackson’s through Wood Creek, and found the same
difficulty in the month of September, and even more so than in the preceding year - 1 was obliged to hire more
hands in Wood Creek to bring me through to Jackson’s that night; and I was for the distance of about 17 miles
and a half (the distance of that creek from Gilbert’s to Jackson’s) from the morning 6 o’clock til 9 at night on

continued on next page

128

Continued from pagel28

my voyage with an empty six handed batteau, drawing not two inches water: this boat was an Onondago salt
boat which had to carry 36 barrels salt to Rome, and the batteauxmen assured me that they had been obliged to
leave two thirds of their cargo about a mile above Dean’s Landing, and they had to go three times up and down
to bring these 36 barrels to the lock at Gilbert’s, and then to ascend with the whole to Rome, which had occas-
sioned them ten days and a half time to do it before they came with these 36 barrels salt from Jackson’s to
Gilbert’s with five hands on board. I did not ascend the Creek in October 1803 which I intended to do, but
being advised by boatmen who came down that it would take me full two days to go from Jackson’s to
Gilbert’s, I came by land.

“In August 1803 there were not less than 500 barrels flour & salt at Jackson’s landing, which were left
there by boatmen unable to proceed with their cargoes up Wood Creek.

“Upon my return last up Wood Creek on the 2nd of October last, I met about four miles from Jackson’s
two Durham-boats which drew but little water, each fifty barrels flour on board, on a sand-bank about four
miles up the creek, where they had lain 36 hours, coming from the Seneca mills. This was on a Tuesday morn¬
ing, and on the Thursday a week following being the 11th of the same month, the boats had not passed the
locks at Rome, to descend the Mohawk for Schenectady; being ten days since I left these boats about four
miles on their way up the creek.”

George Scriba, 1804289

Such intolerable conditions motivated shippers to try the “shunpike” route and look to the emerging turnpikes for at
least partial relief.

water was tolerable good in Wood Creek, we did not reach
the Oak Orchard before five o’clock PM - fine weather and
moon shine at the time brought us at 9 o’clock that night at
Gilbert’s [Canada Creek].

In the year 1804, (last year) I again went by Wood
Creek to the lakes, and returned by the same route. I found
the navigation much in the same situation, and rather
worse. On my descending I met two batteaux with five
hands each, and half a load on board (being 21 barrels salt)
at the Oak Orchard about 11 o’clock in the morning; I
asked them as common, how is the water? They answered,
bad enough. I then asked the boatman or captain. How
long passage from Jackson’s? to which he replied two days
and a half. By inquiring of our boatmen how they had the
water from Gilbert’s to the Oak Orchard, and being told
but so, so; I heard them say, we shall not see Gilbert’s
before tomorrow night.

George Scriba, 180 5290

This account was but one of a series that Scriba had
accumulated, sometimes the result of his own attempts to survey
and document these conditions, and to beg for their improvement.

“In the year 1802 I descended Wood Creek from the locks at Rome, to the
Oneida Lake, with an empty fourhanded batteau; in order to make all
possible speed I engaged four hands: two other boats, lay loaded with
furniture, and families ready at the locks to descend with us, when we
passed through the locks and by my watch it was then seven o’clock AM:
by eleven o’clock, with much difficulty, we reached Fort Bull; there
myself and company (all four in number) stepped out to walk the other
distance to Gilbert’s, at the junction of Canada & Wood Creeks, where
we arrived about one o’clock that day; the empty boat did not arrive till
late at night at Gilbert’s: from thence I went on board the batteau next
morning at five o’clock, and with the greatest labour and difficulty we
reached Jackson’s at the mouth of Wood Creek on Lake Oneida at eight
o'clock at night. The loaded boats did not pass the lake till the fourth day
following, consequently had been from Rome to Jackson’s five days on
their route through Wood Creek.

“The boat in which I was, did not draw two inches water, and I can
say with confidence, which the gentlemen in my company will attest, that
we set fast on sand banks and other obstructions on that creek, more than
fifty different times with this empty boat, and at each time the boatmen
were obliged to get out of the batteau, and lift & drag the same over the
sand bars, etc. to deeper water; at that time I counted upwards of three-
hundred barrel of salt and flour, left at different places, which were hove
out by the batteauxmen to lighten their loads, unable to ascend Wood
Creek with their full loads coming from Onondago Salt-Springs, and the
Cayuga mills, with from twenty to thirty barrels, and who found it
impractical to come by such shallowness of water through the creek to
Gilbert’s.”

George Scriba, 1802291

129

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Little Falls Revisited

131

With little more time than it took to climb back aboard the
batteau, the reunited expedition pushed away from the
landing at Post’s [Utica] and headed down the Mohawk.
This was the first downstream navigation Pharoux and Desjardins
had seen in ten days, and in contrast to their recent experience
with foot travel, must have seemed superb.

It was this advantage of travel by boat over land travel, in that
period, that made the works of the canal company so significant
in the growth of national transport.

We left at once, and by night arrived at the rapids of
the German Flats, where there is a good tavern, and Mr.
DeZeng urged us to stop, not wishing to go down, but we
hoped to get through without much difficulty, but from
want of water were forced to stop a mile beyond, it being
then dark.

It was this complex of shoals and gravel bars that made up the
obstruction at German Flatts called “Wolf Rift.” Avoiding this rift,
and the one just below, known at one point as “Knock ‘em Stiff
Rift”, was the intent of the German Flatts Canal, completed in
1798. Prior to that, as was often the case, a public house was sit¬
uated at the head of the rift. Here that public house was
Aldridge’s, a place of relatively good repute, and undoubtedly the
one at which DeZeng had hoped to spend the night:

Dined at a good house, Aldridge’s, near Fort Herkemer,
on the edge of German Flats.

Jeremy Belknap, 1796292

The following year, while making a run back to Schenectady
from the Black River country, Desjardins, his judgement perhaps
tempered by this experience, did stop at Aldridge’s for the night,
but without comment.

Prevented from making a quick downstream passage of Wolf
Rift by the combination of low water and darkness, the party was
reduced to searching for hospitality among the scattered home¬
steads that stood inland from the river.

Mr. DeZeng conducted us to a farm house, quite
high up on the bank and at a considerable distance from
the river. We made our supper on Sopane. (corn meal
boiled in water, and eaten with milk ) a German dish - and
we slept with our feet to the fire. Mr. DeZeng hired a
horse of a farmer and went on to his own house, as we
were only five miles from the Little Falls.

With the departure of DeZeng, the party was left to enjoy a
modest night out of the elements, and to prepare to navigate the
remaining few miles to the Little Falls in the morning.

Wednesday. Nov. 6th. Left at half past six and arrived at
the Little Falls at half past eight.

Went to see Mr. Porteus and to examine the grist
mill, fulling mill, and saw mill, which he had built at the
falls. The grist mill has four pair of stones, driven by two
wheels. The stones are of small diameter, which renders
the movement so swift that the meal would get heated if

A cross-section of an 18th century grist mill.

they did not take measures to cool it. There is a mecha¬
nism by which the meal is raised to the upper story as it
leaves the millstones, and spreads it into a trough
where a roller covered with flat pegs scatters, stirs and
cools it by introducing air among it. They call this
machine an Elevator.

The machinery of the mill also drives a fanning mill
and screen, so as to save as much as possible the hand
labors so dear in this country. These mills are perfect in
their kind. The saw mill is double, is driven by two wheels,
and has two common saws.

The house and store of Mr. Porteus are very finely
located, overlooking the falls, while the future canal pass¬
es below them.

The interest Pharoux and Desjardins took in this complex of
water-powered industry at Little Falls went beyond the casual
curiosity of tourists, and was more than a courtesy to their guide,
DeZeng. They knew that their settlement on the Black River
would depend on similar establishments, and the observation of
these, which appeared so successful, was insurance against their
own future efforts.

They were far less impressed by the canal, which DeZeng
might well have suggested was the more noteworthy undertak¬
ing here.

We examined the canal more in detail and were
pained to see the incompetence of the Directors, who,
according to all appearances, had never seen nor known
any thing about this kind of labor. Incredible as it may
appear, they had no plans. Mr. DeZeng was quite sur¬
prised to see that we admired nothing, and when asked
the height of the falls, he replied, “about forty feet ” The
word “about,” in a matter that should have been deter¬
mined with the greatest precision, surprised us in turn.

132

“Supaan”

The “Sopane” served to the members of the expedi¬
tion on the evening of November 5th was a boiled
commeal dish commonly found at homes throughout
the frontier. They might have eaten a similar dish among
the Oneidas, as well, but it certainly was a staple among
the settlers of the middle Mohawk valley:

“Supaan is the name among the Germans and
Dutch, by which Indian pudding, usually called mush or
hasty pudding among the English, is known.”

Jeptha Simms, 1845293

A detailed description of not only the preparation of the
meal, but the presentation as well, is provided in a retrospec¬
tive look written a generation after it ceased to become com¬
monplace:

“Until about 1830 to 1840 the inhabitants of the
rural districts of Schoharie - which were settled by the
Dutch & Germans - eat their meals from a large pewter
dish placed by the housewife in the center of a round
top table... I lately measured one of 20 1/2 in. in diame¬
ter, or 2 in. larger than the head of a large barrel head.

Mush was prepared in the fall & winter of the year... it
was boiled in the afternoon & about one hour before
meal time poured from the iron pot into the pewter dish
& set in a cold place, cooling stiffens it.

“Near meal time the housewife made as many excavations as there were guests - piling or heaping up the
centre. As many pewter table spoons as milk ponds were supplied. After grace was said by the head of the fam¬
ily, everyone began to diminish the banks & increase the size of his white lake by feeding on its outer banks
and center - but there were limits beyond those no one could go - if for instance anyone tapped his neighbor’s
milk pond it was ill manners - if children did so the penalty was finger clips.

“Persons at this time do not know why such a method was practiced? We answered - because china was
scarce & high in price, & the people were poor in money - altho many had much land but little cash. Pewter
plates cost from 50 to 75 cts each, by making such ingenious arrangements answered every purpose & saved
much dishwashing and labor.”

Rufus Grider, cl896294

Rufus Grider’s painting of a supaan dish
with its “ponds” of milk, 1887.

We asked him how they expected to pass the creek
near Mr. Porteus \ which must be of considerable size in
freshets , and w»as bounded by a rocky chasm. He answered
that they did not intend to turn it nor to open any passage
above , but simply allow it to run into the canal. We judged
from this that our questions were useless, and he readily
saw that our surprise was not admiration.

He confessed to us that with all surplus affairs he
had nothing to do, and that he was only charged with car¬
rying out the views of General Schuyler, the President of
the Company, who did not like to be contradicted in his
opinions, and drew a thousand pounds a year as the head
of the enterprise . This did not keep us from remarking
that these thousand pounds might have been better spent

in paying a European engineer, and that the country
should have known better than to give such a sum use¬
lessly to one of the richest citizens of the State, by whom
the confidence of the company should be borne as an
honorary office.

It would scarcely be believed in Europe that in
building a navigable canal, they had laid up dry walls of
broken stone, five or six feet high, without any widening
at the base, and with only six feet of sandy soil on the
outside. More than this; at the lower end of the canal,
where most of the locks will be placed, and where the
solid rock offered naturally a work of great solidity,
although long in cutting, the locks should have been
made in the rock itself.

133

The Little Falls Canal

The construction of the Little Falls Canal between
1793 and 1795 never failed to draw the attention
of travelers along the Mohawk Valley:

“For these three years past, the people have
been busied in constructing a canal, which runs
along the banks of the rapids, and is intended to
remove the impediments, that interrupt the navi¬
gation. A company of gentlemen of considerable
property, supported by a great number of sub¬
scribers, have entered upon this undertaking, and
but very lately obtained a powerful aid from the
Legislature of the State of New York, which has
subscribed largely for this enterprise. The canal, it
is assured, is to be finished this year; and we are
assured that it will be accomplished very soon.

“The work is, however, in my judgement, but little advanced; although the whole length amounts to no
more than three quarters of a mile; the progress is very slow; and a rock is to be cut through. The stones,
which are dug out, are partly made use of for erecting a wall three feet in height on both sides of the canal.

This wall is again covered with earth, which is also thrown against it on both sides, so that it forms a dam, the
top of which is eight feet in width, and the slope about thirty. As neither mortar nor any other cement is used
in erecting the wall, it remains with me a matter of doubt, whether the water will not find its way through the
dam, and do mischief.

“At the beginning of the canal two locks have been constructed, which are completely finished, except
that the doors are not yet hung. These locks are built all of wood, the foundation as well as the sides, and the
workmanship as far as I am able to judge, is very good; but I am at a loss to conceive, why no stones are made
use of in the construction of this work, as they abound in the surrounding country.

“Two hundred and fifty workmen are constantly employed at the canal, who receive each six shillings a
day, without board. These workmen are divided into certain companies; a great number of them are inhabitants
of the neighborhood, but many are also Irishmen newly arrived, nay Irish convicts, whose conduct is far from
being beneficial to the country.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795295

The impressions formed by members of the French expedition during their initial inspection of the canal in 1793
were little improved during subsequent visits:

“...and I, to examine the labors on the canal, which I found but feebly advanced. The proprietors have
now an Irishman, who appears to me more intelligent in the construction of wooden locks, for, in the way it
had been begun, it would cost large sums to make them of masonry. They are now under the necessity of
building in the excavation of the rock, locks of carpenter work, covered with plank, pitched, and the intervals
and seams between the rocks and woodwork filled with broken stone, which will render the work passable, but
not durable.

Simon Desjardins, 1794296

“...arrived at Little Falls... we visited the works on the canal, and observed a continuation of the same
ignorance in their operations: the oversight bad, and the work insecure. We thought they would scarcely be
able to finish the structure at the close of the coming season, at the rate they were going on.”

Simon Desjardins, 1794297

continued on next page

134

continued from page 134

Even after it was completed, the canal failed to impress them:

“...we arrived at half past four at the canal at the Little Falls, and spent an hour in getting through, on
account of the small experience of the lock tenders, and the little depth of the water. On getting out of the
canal, it was dark, and having imprudently let the boat go before the lock was empty, we were thrown by the
violence of the rush upon a rock, where we thought we were injured...”

Simon Desjardins, 1795298

“Our boatmen not coming, we went to the canal, where we found our boat which they had passed. The
locks require a considerable time to fill and empty, as the water wastes on all sides, through the joints of the
planks, and the earth supporting the sluices, and forming the banks. Beside this, the gates do not close perfect¬
ly. They have not yet blasted the rock away at the outlet of the canal, and almost all the batteaux strike there,
with more or less peril. When some accidents have happened, they will attend to this. We escaped with a vio¬
lent shock and a broken boat hook.”

Simon Desjardins, 17962"

It was shortly thereafter that Schuyler hired William Weston, a
British engineer with canal-building experience, to supervise these
and subsequent works of the company, with very appreciable
results. For now, however, skilled engineering was clearly lacking,
and the apparent irrationality of constructing wooden locks in cuts
made in solid bedrock was duly noted by the journalists:

They have, however, done nothing of the kind, but
after blasting the rock here and there, without plan or
system, so that the excavation looks like a huge trough,
they have built the locks of carpenter’s work, and the
spaces between the cheeks of the locks and the rock are
filled, after General Schuyler’s economical style, with
broken masses of loose rock, without mortar - for cement
is an article unknown in these parts.

Elkanah Watson, viewing the canal seven years later, when it had
been completed for five years, had a higher opinion of its work¬
manship, but still cautioned the use of wood in its construction:

The canal at Rome & the German Flatts do honor to
the efforts of the Directors & talents of the engineer; & is
not inferior to some of the best works of the kind I have
seen in Europe...

The canal at the Little Falls may be pronounced per¬
manent - but the guard lock and the 5 other locks at this
place, being unfortunately constructed of timber, cannot
exist above 2 or 3 years more.

Elkanah Watson, 1800300

Watson’s predictions were correct, and in 1803 all of these
wooden works were entirely rebuilt in stone. The Frenchmen
noted that excavations made across the portage here were in
exceptionally hard rock, and required significant amounts of
blasting with black powder.

The rock is of a greyish color, strikes sparks with steel,
has a glistening fracture, and is often found crystallized.

We dined at the house of Major DeZeng, and bought
of him a hundred pounds of maple sugar. We then bade him
adieu. Our first pilot having left us, Mr. Judson undertook
to supply his place, and Briton and Newton, who wished to
return to their own country, agreed to improve this opportu¬
nity by going with us, at only half a dollar a day.

At the portage they robbed us of two little turtles, of
very handsome shells bordered with bright red, which M.
Brunei had found in his course on the Onondaga and took
a fancy to carry to Albany, being of a kind very rare, even in
this country.

135

The open criticism recorded in the journal of the canal over
which their guide DeZeng would serve as superintendent was per¬
haps stimulated by the insights of Marc Brunei, who might have
enjoyed remaining a while longer to inspect these experimental
efforts at American civil engineering. But after some rearrange¬
ments were made to accommodate the change of personnel, the
expedition prepared to undertake the final leg of their journey; a
simple downriver voyage back to the harbor at Schenectady from
which they had embarked 35 days earlier.

“The Inland Lock Navigation Company was incorporated in 1792, and
had capital of $450,000, of which the State owns $92,000. They have five
locks at the Little Falls, two at the German Flatts, and two at Rome,
besides their works in Wood Creek.

“All their improvements might now be done at less than half the orig¬
inal expense. General Schuyler, the original superintendent, was inexpe¬
rienced. The locks at the Little Falls were originally built of wood, which
rotting, stone was substituted; and those at Rome were made of brick,
which not standing the frost, were replaced also by stone. There is a fine
stone quarry a mile and a half from the Little Falls, of which the locks
were made; and they were first built of wood from ignorance that the
country contained the stone. This quarry is no less curious than valuable.
The stones divide naturally as if done by tools. The wooden locks here put
the Company to an unnecessary expense of 50,000 dollars - 10,000 dollars
a lock. An old church at the German Flatts was built of stone taken from
that quarry, and yet this escaped the notice of the Company.

“The artificial bank of the canal was supported in the inside by a dry
wall which cost 15,000 dollars. This is found worse than useless. It served
as a sieve to carry off the water and to injure the banks, and it has
become necessary to remove it. The bridges of the canal are so low that
we were obliged to take down our awning.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810301

136

CHAPTER ETGHTTF.F.N

Passage to Schenectady

137

As the party left the portage at Little Falls behind them, late
in the afternoon of November 6th, they looked forward to
an easy passage down the lower Mohawk, helped along by
the current, and even an occasional following breeze. At this point
they might well have considered the major challenges of their
momentous, if not monumental, expedition to all be behind them.

Yet the weather soon conspired to tarnish their expectations,
forcing an early end to the day of travel.

We re-embarked at half past four, and at six a vio¬
lent rain compelled us to land at a point five miles from
our place of starting. We hunted for a path, and came to
a log house on a hill at some distance from the river,
where we were cheerfully received, and aided in bringing
up our packages. We took supper, and spent part of the
evening in singing and dancing with these gallant people.
The father’s name was David Heiss, of German origin,
who, persecuted in the revolution, had sought refuge in
Canada. On the restoration of peace, he had been oblig¬
ed to begin again entirely anew. His large family were
polite in their manners, and of fine spirit. He spoke with
M. Desjardins about buying a farm that was for sale near
him, as he wished to have French for neighbors.

By chance, they had fallen in with people with surplus real
estate for sale. For whatever the motive, Desjardins was interest¬
ed enough in the possibility of buying a Mohawk Valley farm¬
stead to examine the parcel the next morning. Perhaps the ordeal
of the journey, coupled with the ambiguity of the project on the
Black River, induced him to consider other options. Or perhaps he
was just curious and polite.

Thursday. Nov. 7th. In the morning, M. Desjardins went
to look at the farm that was for sale. It consisted of eighty
acres of low ground, on the banks of the Mohawk, and
the farm house, situated on a height, needed rebuilding.

It had adjoining it some sixty large apple trees. There
were seventy acres of upland, which was very rocky and
only fit for pasturage and fire wood. They asked for the
whole two thousand dollars, which is not a dear price,
and M. Desjardins took the address of the owner. On his
return we set out.

This modest farmhouse appeared to provide an opportunity for
the Frenchmen to observe the reputed benevolent American char¬
acter that had so often, on this journey, alluded them.

Our generous host would not take any money for
our entertainment, but we gave a few shillings to his little
ones. This was the first house in which we had experi¬
enced any of the American hospitality so highly extolled,
and soon after leaving we discovered that they had stolen
a cake of maple sugar.

Disillusioned again, the party pushed off into the river, where
the cold night had reduced visibility to nearly zero.

The morning was foggy, and we safely passed the
rocks of a rapid, almost without seeing them; the noise of
the water only notifying us of the danger.

The blind navigation of furious rapids may well have caused
the three Frenchmen to call up their reserves of courage, for this
is the first instance recorded in this journal where they so fully
entrusted their boatmen with their lives.

Boatmen on the Mohawk, as those on the great western rivers
a half century later, usually knew the river channel by heart and
boasted of their ability to run at night.

Two years later Desjardins and Pharoux passed this same j
stretch of river on their way to Schenectady. It was early j
December, and pressed for time they determined to make a
night passage:

...took council as to whether we should continue on
the route in the dark. The aves prevailed; so I wrapped
myself in my cloak, as the cold was piercing, and aban¬
doned myself to Providence, who allowed us to pass in the
darkness all the rapids, where we might have been broken
and drowned a thousand times. We went ten miles further,
and our boatmen glorified in their skill in running the bat-
teau where they could not see their course. We slept on the
floor of a very good log-house.

Simon Desjardins, 1795302

Emerging from the morning fog, the batteau ran quickly down !

through the valley. In this one day they had traveled a distance j

that had taken over twice as long going up, and passed such land¬
marks as Hudson’s Tavern, Spraker’s Tavern, and the Noses.

Finally we came, with new pleasure, to some agree¬
able habitations on the river bank. We especially admired
the District of Canajohary, and the picturesque location
of Fort Plain.

“At a distance of forty-two and a-half miles from Schenectady, passed
Fort Plain on the south side and in Minden. It derives its name from a
block-house which was formerly erected here.”

DeWitt Clinton, 1810303

At the close of the day we landed above the
Schoharie rapids, and M. Pharoux, attended by Mr.
Judson as an interpreter, went to a fine brick house
which they took for a tavern. The mistress told them that
it was not one, but that they and their companions could
stay there. Upon this we landed, and were received in
silence before a good fire.

Their happenstance landing had brought the expedition into
the home of one of the Mohawk Valley’s most colorful residents,
Col. Visscher, who lived on the north side of the Mohawk, rough¬
ly opposite the mouth of the Schoharie Creek at Fort Hunter.

His grand house represented the emerging reconstruction of
pre-War society in the valley, which had suffered so greatly the
devastation of the Tory and Indian campaign:

This extent was the scene of the British and savage
cruelty during the late war, and they did not cease while
anything remained to destroy. What a contrast now! Every

138

River Wrecks

Frequent accidents no doubt occurred to those who navi¬
gated small batteaux along the inland waterways in the
closing years of the eighteenth century. However, little
mention is made of these in surviving accounts. Perhaps the
captains of these light, maneuverable craft were skilled and
experienced enough to avoid serious mishaps

But in the opening years of the following century, as the
large Durham boats took over the bulk of Mohawk River
transport, incidents of death and destruction increased, at
least in the historical record. Boatmen, competing with the
emerging turnpikes for business and struggling against the
vicissitudes of the river, pushed the system to its limits, often
running the river when the water was dangerously high in
order to make one or two extra trips.

It is not unexpected, therefore, that some of the most
dramatic river boat accidents on record occurred in those
closing years of the river navigation era just prior to the
opening of the Erie Canal [c. 1825]:

“At the upper end of the island, [around 1820] some two miles west of Fort Plain, near the Palatine shore,
a man at a setting pole, on a Durham boat, lost his footing and fell into the river. The current there was quite
strong, the man could not swim, the boat fell below him and he was drowned. ...In 1823. ...Ezra Copeley ran a
Durham boat on a rock in Ehle’s rift, below the Fort Plain bridge. It was loaded with wheat in bulk, was stove
and filled with water. The wheat was taken to Ehle’s bam and dried, the boat was repaired, reloaded, and went
on to its destination.”

Jeptha Simms, 1882304

But the most spectacular and interesting accident on the river befell the great Durham freighter “Butterfly” in the
Spring of 1823:

“One of the last accidents of the kind occurred while the canal was nearing completion to a Durham boat,
one of the best of that class of river craft, called the Butterfly. It was descending the river, then swollen, laden
with flour, potash and wheat in bulk, when it became unmanageable, swung round, and struck its broadside
against a pier of the Canajoharie bridge, and broke near the center. The contents of the boat literally filled the
river for some distance, and three hands on the boat were drowned. The name of one was afterward ascer¬
tained to be John Clark. His body was recovered twelve miles below, and was buried on the river bank, in the
present village of Fultonville. His bones having been dislodged by the spring freshet of 1845, they were
taken up and buried in the village burying-ground. Nicholas Steller, who witnessed the disaster, says that the
man steering the boat retained the long tiller (15 or 20 feet long), which was broken loose from the boat; and
by its assistance he gained the north shore 80 rods below the bridge.

“Most of the flour on the boat was saved along the river. The owner of the craft, a Mr. Meyers, had its
fragments taken to Schenectada and rebuilt, after which it entered the canal, and went into Cayuga Lake. While
there engaged, his boat sunk laden with gypsum, and he was drowned. Thus ended the Butterfly and its owner.”

Jeptha Simms, 1882305

Meyers was running his boat out of the lower end of Cayuga Lake, making a routine shipment to Schenectady. It is
likely he encountered a spring freshet, given the estimated date of his journey. Boat runs during high water in the Spring had
the advantage of depth on the rifts, running easily over bottoms that a few weeks later might be impassable. But the force of
water and the unpredictable current, often hiding new gravel bars and eddies formed since the last season, posed a real danger.

The Canajoharie bridge that Meyers’ boat broke against was a covered bridge built on three stone piers set in the river
built by noted bridge builder Theodore Burr in 1808. This predated the great covered bridge he built across the Mohawk at
Schenectady by one year. The Canajoharie bridge replaced an earlier single span bridge, built in 1803, that had collapsed. To
the captain of a 60 foot long Durham boat, hurling along sideways in the rushing current of the swollen Mohawk, the stone
piers of these new-fangled covered bridges must have loomed horribly on the horizon.

139

house and bam rebuilt, the pastures crowded with cattle,
sheep, etc...

Capt. Charles Williamson, 1792306

After so many weeks of seeing little else but forest and rustic
frontier architecture, this fine brick house, which apparently had
just recently been completed, must have appeared as a dramatic
contrast. Inside, they were to receive hospitality more reminiscent
of Albany or Schenectady, than deep in the Mohawk Valley.

Two hours after, the proprietor entered, with a
laborer in his employment, and after saluting us very
cordially, he ordered refreshments to be prepared.

This man was Colonel Fisher, one of the principal
land proprietors of the country, and a county judge. We
talked about our journey until supper time. Thanks to his
attentions, the table was better served than American
suppers generally are, as they usually consist of only
bread, butter, etc. We did honor to it with our appetite,

and one might have admired the way we disposed of the
turkey, fowl, and fresh pork.

The Colonel begged our permission to eat with his
hat on, as he had been scalped by the Indians in the late
war, and was left for dead, on his place, with two broth¬
ers, whom they had killed after burning his buildings;
but Providence saved him.

After supper he conducted us to an extremely neat
chamber, furnished with two good beds, in which we rest¬
ed with all the more pleasure, as for more than a month
we had slept in our blankets on the ground.

The next day, the French party got a guided tour of this afflu¬
ent Dutch farmstead, taking note of the unusual or innovative fea¬
tures of its operation.

Friday. Nov. 8th. In the morning Col. Fisher took us to
see his very neat and commodious building. His barn,
built after the Holland style, is a great isolated building

Col. Visschers “Danoscarra”

The details of the events of 1780, preserved
in the account that follows, might well have
been shared with the French visitors that
evening in 1793; their last on the river:

“About twenty of the enemy first arrived
at the old Fisher place, and attempted to force
an entrance by cutting in the door, but being
fired upon from a window by the intrepid
inmates, they retreated round the comer of the
house... The brothers defended the house for
some length of time after the enemy gained
entrance below, and a melee followed in the
stairway, on their attempting to ascend. Several
balls were fired up through the floor... which
the brothers avoided by standing over the large
timbers which supported it. At this period the
sisters escaped from the cellar-kitchen, and fled
to the woods not far distant... Mrs. Fisher,
about to follow her daughters from the house,
was stricken down at the door by a blow on the
head from the butt of a musket, and left without
being scalped.

“As the enemy ascended the stairs. Col. Fisher discharged a pistol he held in his hand, and calling for quar¬
ters, threw it behind him in token of submission. An Indian, running up, struck him a blow on the head with a tom¬
ahawk, which brought him to the floor. He fell upon his face, and the Indian took two crown scalps from his head,
which no doubt entitled him to a double reward, then giving him a gash in the back of the neck, he turned him and
attempted to cut his throat, which was only prevented by his cravat, the knife penetrating just through the skin...

“The house was plundered, and then set on fire... After the enemy had left, his consciousness returned, and
as soon as strength would allow, he ascertained that his brother John was dead. From a window he discovered
that the house was on fire... Descending, he found his mother near the door, faint from the blow dealt upon her
head, and too weak to render him any assistance. With no little effort the colonel succeeded in removing the body

contuined next page

Detail of 1792 engraving showing early farm, similar to the description
of “Danosacrra”, including two hay ricks near the bam.

140

continued from page 140

of his brother out of the house, and then assisted his mother, who was seated in a chair, the bottom of which had
already caught fire, to a place of safety; and having carried out a bed, he laid down upon it, at a little distance
from the house, in a state of exhaustion.

“Tom, a black slave, belonging to Adam Zielie, was the first neighbor to arrive at Fisher’s. He enquired of
the colonel what he should do for him? Fisher could not speak, but signified by signs his desire for water. Tom
ran down to the Dadenoscara, a brook running through a ravine a little distance east of the house, and filling
his old hat, the only substitute for a vessel at hand, he soon returned with it; a drink of which restored the
wounded patriot to consciousness and speech...

“Col. Fisher directed Tom to harness a span of colts, then in a pasture near, (which, as the morning was
very foggy, had escaped the notice of the enemy,) before a wagon and take him to the river at David
Putnam’s... When the wagon arrived near the bank of the river, several tories were present, who refused to
assist in carrying the Fishers down the bank to a canoe, whereupon Tom took the colts by their heads, and led
them down the bank... The family were taken into a boat and carried across the river to Ephrain Wemple’s,
where every attention was paid them, When a person is scalped, the skin falls upon the face so as to disfigure
the countenance; but on its being drawn up on the crown of the head, the face resumes its natural look; such
was the case with Col. Fisher, as stated by an eye witness.

“Seeing the necessity of his having proper medical attention, Col. Fisher’s friends on the south side of the
river, sent him forward in the canoe by trusty persons, to Schenectada, where he arrived just at dark the same
day of his misfortune...

“After he recovered, he gave the faithful negro who treated him so kindly when suffering under the
wounds of the enemy, a valuable horse... Judge Fisher - a living monument of savage warfare - was an active
and useful citizen of the Mohawk valley for many years, and died of a complaint in the head - caused, as was
supposed, by the loss of his scalp, on the 9th day of June, 1809.

“Some years after the Revolution, Judge Fisher, or Visscher, as it is now written by several of the family,
to whom the homestead reverted on the death of his brothers, erected a substantial brick dwelling over the
ashes of his birth place, where he spent the evening of his days amid the associations of youthful pleasure and
manly suffering. This desirable farm residence... is pleasantly situated on a rise of ground in the town of
Mohawk, several miles east of Fonda, Montgomery county. It is given the Indian name of the adjoining creek,
in the hope of preserving that name.”

Jeptha Simms, 1845307

In the middle there is a large planked floor, where
the wheat is beaten out by means of a roller attached at
its little end to a central post , while at the large end there
is a bar to which horses or oxen are fastened, and they
move it around in a circle . This roller is armed with teeth
like the cylinder of a music box, and these wooden pegs
crushing into the straw beat out the grain. It is true the

straw by this process is all broken up, but this is of little
account, as the stock is all fed upon hay .

This machine is an English invention, and we
thought that the bruising of the wheat and the loss of the
straw, so profitable to the cultivator, would not compen¬
sate for the saving of hand labor.

The two sides of the barn were formed with stalls, or
stables, for oxen, cows, horses, and sheep, which are
open to the air and closed only by bars, although under
the same roof as the barn itself, where the winter forage
is sheltered very nicely.

The lower part has an immense floor, on which is
stored the hay and the straw from the threshing floor. As
for the grain, we saw, a little in front of each door, two
square mows, covered with a movable roof supported by
four posts, furnished with holes and pins, by means of
which the roof could be lowered as the pile was reduced by
threshing. The heads of the sheaves were towards the cen¬
ter, and the butts of the straw outside, by which means the
grain was perfectly preserved and even better than the barn.
It is less exposed to the depredation of insects and rats than
in France, and this method proves a great economy, as well

141

An 18th century adjustable grain rick of the type described in 1793.

in building as in the saving of grain.

This barn, with its four stacks of grain, presented a
much more agreeable appearance than the confused
arrangement of buildings which we notice in our own
farm yards.

Fisher’s impressive farm represented the vanguard of a re¬
occupation of the lands adjacent to the inland waterways, which
would make such establishments increasingly common during the
coming decades. But here also was encountered the hospitality
which had been expected more frequently by the Frenchmen on
their journey into the American frontier:

In order not to deviate from the customs of the
country, we tendered the price of our amicable entertain¬
ment in money to the respectable master of the family,
with such apologies as we thought proper, but he replied,
with a smile, that although this was the custom, he would
not consent to take any thing from us. We bade him
adieu, and wished, for the honor of Americans, that there
were more people like this good farmer and rich propri¬
etor, whose frank hospitality we might prove.

By immediate contrast, the party stopped at mid-day at an
even grander house, but with far less impressive service.

At the hour for dinner, we landed at the confiscated
house formerly owned by Colonel Johnson, but now kept
as a tavern, for the purpose of enquiring how we might
adventurously purchase from the State. Notwithstanding
the little fortune which this man has made, we found no
bread in his house, and were obliged to go two miles fur¬
ther to the tavern where we had breakfasted in going up.

This latter tavern was apparently the house of Isaac Veeder,
which stood near the mouth of the Chuctanunda Creek
[Amsterdam], It was in this house, identified as that of “Isaas
Veeder”, that the first town meeting of Amsterdam was held three
months later. And it was to the house of “Isaac Veeder, where we

had been the fall before,” that Desjardins came the following year.

The final few miles of the downriver voyage were passed
without comment. Perhaps the voyagers were weary of making
entries, too exhausted to be concerned with the details of their
journey, or unimpressed by landscapes that they had already
recorded in detail on the trip up, some weeks before. Certainly the
navigation down from Fort Hunter to the safe harbor at
Schenectady was far less eventful than any comparable stretch of
river to the west, although the broad, shallow channel often pro¬
vided some of the most difficult rapids for the upstream sailor.

At four o’clock we arrived at Schenectady, where
Mr. Judson and the carpenter left us. We unloaded our
goods and placed the bateau in the care of Mr. Murdock,
a partner of Mr. Porteus, of whom we hired a wagon to
take us to Albany in the morning. We supped at the City
Tavern, with Mr. Hudson, who this time had us lodge in
the chamber, and M. Brunei in a room over the stairway.

The party was once again comfortably lodged at the tavern in
Schenectady, having stepped for the last time from the batteau
that had carried them to the brink of the Great Lakes, and safely
back.

How strange the urban scene might have been to those who
had traversed the New York wilderness - lodging in the rustic log
cabins of frontier settlers, the bark houses of the Oneidas, and
under the canvas of their own small tents. But this impression is
not recorded in the journal. Perhaps the warmth of a good fire, a
rich meal, and the diversions of the tap room, too much occupied
their energies to allow for the recording of their thoughts.

To others, coming downriver to see this port for the first time,
Schenectady was often found worthy of note:

...at length we reached Skenectady, the end of our
navigation... Skenectady is a small town, as old as Albany,
and containing mostly old houses, built in the Dutch style,
which give it altogether the appearance of an ancient
European city. The Mohawk River, which is here closely
hemmed in, takes a large sweep in the vicinity of this
town,; and a cataract renders the navigation impossible.
You here quit the vessel, and proceed by land to Albany...

Skenectady is the emporium as well for the provi¬
sion, which comes down the Mohawk River, designed for
Albany, as for the merchandize, which from the stores at
Albany is transmitted to the countries, intersected by the
Mohawk River and other streams, flowing into the former
as far as the district of Genesee.

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795308

“The possibility of constructing a canal, by which the falls as well as other
impediments of the navigation of the Mohawk River may be avoided, is
acknowledged on all hands; and plans, it is asserted, are in contempla¬
tion, to facilitate the painful passage we have just made, and to supersede
the necessity of occasional land-carriage. This would be a great and use¬
ful undertaking, equally honorable and advantageous for the State of
New York. Vessels of fifteen or twenty tons burden, it is said, might be
employed in this navigation, which would thus become an outlet, far
preferable to that of the River St. Lawrence, which admits of only boats
of three or four tons burden.”

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795309

142

There were but sixteen miles of sand hills yet to be crossed to
complete their expedition along the inland route, and this was
quickly passed by wagon the next day.

Saturday. Nov. 9th. Set out from Schenectady at seven in
the morning, and arrived in Albany at eleven.

Perhaps closed inside their stage wagon, with the cur¬
tains drawn down against the cold, the party did not take note of
the road through the “Pine Bush” as others traveling that way a
few months earlier had:

I left the town towards evening and returned to
Albany. It is a very unpleasant road to pass, there being but
a few settlements on it, the sand deep, and the lands cov¬
ered with pitch-pine.

Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1793310

Making the dusty passage to Albany in just four hours, the
French party avoided the inconvenience that often befell those
attempting to surmount the final sixteen miles of their journey:

...we wished to reach Albany as soon as possible. A
stable-keeper engaged to carry us the same night to Albany,

though it was already late; we took accordingly our seats in
his wagon, bolstered with straw.

About four miles from Skenectady, the driver
informed us, that he could not proceed farther. Grumbling,
we submitted, therefore, to the necessity of taking up our
night’s lodging in a bad inn, where, as soon as
Dupetitthouars had occupied the only bed which was in the
house, I entered into a conversation with the landlord and
our driver, which turned upon politics, the universal topic
in this country...

After a three hours’ journey through a country, which
is much like the woods of Anjou, sandy, covered with
fern, and bearing none but sickly trees, we at length
arrived in Albany.

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1795311

So it was that in the chill of an early November morning, the
expedition once again gazed upon the cluster of buildings hugging
the edge of the Hudson River; completing their journey to the
edge of the American wilderness, and back again.

143

Epilogue

The harbor at Schenectady, circa 1800, drawn on the spot in 1898 by Rufus Grider from
eyewitness descriptions. The image shows the wharf, the warehouses
of the forwarding firms, and Durham boats departing for the West.

The 1790s was an era of dynamic change in the vast territories of the Northeast gradual¬
ly to become known as “Upstate New York”.

With the influx of settlers, new energies animated the region through which the
Mohawk/Oneida waterway network passed. Productive agricultural clearings replaced the
forest, the merchant replaced the hunter, and the forces of the cash profit market soon
gained priority over the limited perspectives of subsistence and regional trade.

Transportation provided the mechanism for moving the produce of these emerging
settlements to market, and facility of transport directly affected the profitability of the
enterprise.

New demands placed on the inland navigation corridor by these developments in the
1790s would foster an atmosphere of evolution and experimentation within which the
improvements created by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company would emerge in
the decade following the expedition described in this narrative.

Soon a continuous navigation channel, an integration of improved natural waterways
and artificial canals, would connect Schenectady with Oswego, making it possible in
1798 for boats twice the size and able to carry seven times the cargo to replace the
humble batteaux.

These large river freighters - the Durham boats - would become increasingly common
in New York’s inland waters in the opening years of the nineteenth century. They sym¬
bolized a qualitative breakthrough in the development of an effective infrastructure for
international transportation in the Early Republic; hinting at the true canal boats to follow
with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.

144

Source Notes

1 Rev. Elijah Woolsey, The Supernumerary; or, Lights and
Shadows of Itinerancy, The Christian Advocate and Journal and
Zion’s Herald (New York, July 1830 - December 1831),
November 12, 1830, p. 44.

2 Elkanah Watson, History of the Rise, Progress, and Existing
Condition of the Western Canals (Albany, 1820), p. 25.

3 Jacob Lindley, Journal, In Friends’ Miscellany, edited by John
and Isaac Comly, No. 2, Vol 2 (Philadelphia, 1832), p. 55.

4 Jeremy Belknap, Journal of a Tour from Boston to Oneida,
June, 1796 (Cambridge, 1882), p. 28-29.

5 Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, General Lincoln’s Journal,

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol, V of
the Third Series (Boston, 1836), p.114-115.

6 George R. Howell and W.W. Munsell, History of the County of
Schenectady, NY from 1662 to 1886 (New York, 1886), p. 49.

7 Gen . Benjamin Lincoln , p . 1 1 3 .

8 Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Diary, translated by Metchie J.E.
Budka, “Journey to Niagara, 1805, from the Diary of Julian
Ursyn Niemcewicz”, New York Historical Society Quarterly,
Volume XLIV, Number 1, January 1960, (New York, 1960),
p.82-83.

18 Rufus Grider, Notebooks, Vol. 2 (New York State Library),

P-3.

19 Jeptha R. Simms, 1882, Vol. I, p.33.

20 Rufus Grider, Vol. 2 (New York State Library), p.3.

23 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p. 28.

24 Jeremy Belknap, Journal of a Tour from Boston to Oneida,
June, 1796 (Cambridge, 1882), p. 13.

25 _ _ , p.13.

26 Jonathan Pearson, A History of the Schenectady Patent
(Albany, 1883), p.423.

27 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 55.

28 Christian Schultz, Travels on an Island Voyage... 1810
(Reprinted, Ridgewood, NJ: The Gregg Press, 1968), p.6

29 Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, 1794, p. 242.

30 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 38.

9

, p.91.

31 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p. 13.

10 John M. Duncan, Travels Through Part of the United States
and Canada in 1818 and 1819, 2 vols (New York, 1823), Vol. II,
p. 5-6.

11 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 29.

12 Rev. Elijah Woolsey, 1830-1831, September 24, 1830, p. 16.

13 Jeptha R. Simms, The Frontiersmen of New York (Albany,
1882), Vol. 1, p.348.

14 _ , p.351.

15 Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, The Castorland
Journal, translated by Franklin B, Hough, A7009, Box 84,
Franklin B, Hough Papers (New York State Library, Albany),
1794, p.243.

16 Jacob Lindley,! 832 p. 57-58.

17 William W Campbell, The Life and Writings of De Witt
Clinton (New York, 1 849) , p . 35 .

32 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 38.

33 Philip Schuyler, et, al, The Report of a Committee Appointed
to Explore the Western Wate (Albany, 1792), p.6.

34 Samuel W. Durant, History of St. Lawrence Co., New York,
1878, (Reprint, Interlaken: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1982),
p.147.

35 John Cochrane, Typescript of undated manscript, 1972
(Massachusetts Historical Society)

36 Jeptha R. Simms, The Frontiersmen of New York (Albany,
1882), Vol. 1, p.351.

37 Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, 1794, p. 7.

38 The American Museum, or Repository of Ancient and Modern
Fugitive Pieces, Prose and Poetical, Vol 2 (Philadelphia, 1787),
p. 352.

39 Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, 1794, p.242.

145

Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, Publications of the
Buffalo Historical Society, Vol, 2 (Buffalo, 1880), p.48.

41 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p.14.

42

E.B. O’Callaghan, editor. Documentary History of New
York, 4 volumes (Albany, 1849-51), Vol. I, p.528.

43

Philip Schuyler and William Weston, Report of the Directors
of the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation
Companies .. .Together with the Report of Mr. William Weston,
Engineer, New York, 1796, Reprinted in Buffalo Historical
Society Publications, Vol. 2 (Buffalo, 1880), p.173-4.

44 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 10.

45 Joshua Marsden, The Narrative of a Mission to Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, and the Somers Islands with a Tour to Lake
Ontario (London, 1816), p. 188.

46 Arthur T. Smith, Papers of the Herkimer County Historical
Society, Vol., 2 (Herkimer and Ilion, 1902), p. 59.

47 Philip Schuyler, Second Report of the Western Inland Lock
Navigation Company - 1798. Buffalo Historical Society
Publications, Vol. 13. (Buffalo, 1909), p. 200.

Philip Schuyler, et, al, 1792, #206 p.7.

William W Campbell, 1849, p.44.

Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p.15.

William W Campbell, 1849, p.48.

Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 30.

Philip Schuyler, et, al. The Report of a Committee Appointed to
Explore the Western Waters. . . (Albany, 1792), p.7-8.

54 Philip Schuyler, et, al, 1792, p.13.

55 Philip Schuyler and William Weston, (1798), 1880, p.173.

William W Campbell, 1849, p.48.

58 Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, 1960, p. 90.

59 Levi Beardsley, Reminiscences (New York, 1852), p. 35-36.

60 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 49-50.

61 Jacob Lindley, 1832, p. 62..

62 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 39-40.

63 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 30-3 1 .

64 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 12.

65 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 30.

66 Philip Schuyler and William Weston, 1796, 1880, p. 164-5.

67 Anonymous, “A Drawn Map of the County of Albany, 1756”,
Shelfmark K Top CXXI.9.2 (The British Library, London).

48

49

50

51

52

53

68 Isaac Weld, Travels Through the States of North America and
the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada During the Years 1795,
1796 & 1797, 2 Vols., (4th ed.) Vol. 1 . (London, 1807), p. 77.

69 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p.12-13.

70 Joshua Marsden, 1816, p. 187.

71 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 14.

72

Timothy Dwight, Travels: In New England and New York, 4
vols (London, 1823), Vol. II p.131-132.

73 Timothy Dwight, 1823, Vol. II, p.287.

74

Clinton A. Weslager, The Log Cabin in America; From
Pioneer Days to the Present (New Brunswick, New Jersey,
1969), p.56.

75 Felice Harcourt, ed. Memoirs of Madame De La Tour Du Pin
(London: Century Publishing, 1969), p.235.

76 Captain Basil Hall, Travels in North America in the Years
1827 and 1828, Vol, II (Philadelphia, 1829), p.69-71.

77 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.58.

78 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 14.

79 William W Campbell, 1849, p.54-55.

80 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p.31.

81 Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1836, p . 1 20- 121.

8" Philip Schuyler and William Weston, 1796, 1880, p.174.

83 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 32.

84 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 54.

85 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 16.

86 Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. The Golden Age of Homespun
(Ithaca, 1953), p.166-167.

87 Philip Schuyler, 1798, 1909), p.202-203.

88 William Newham Blane, Excursion Through the United
States and Canada During the Years 1822-23, in Roger Haydon,
Upstate Travels: British Views of Nineteenth Century New York
(Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982), p. 192.

89 Levi Beardsley, 1852, p. 34.

90 William Hartshome, William Hartshorne’s Journal of
Journey to Detroit, 1793 (Archives, New York Yearly Meeting,
Religious Society of Friends, New York), p. 5.

91 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p.3 3.

92 Philip Schuyler, 1798, 1909),p.201.

93 Jacob Lindley, 1832, p 63.

94 James Cockbum, A Survey of a Tract of Land, the Property
of John and Nicholas Roosevelt & Co., 1792 (New York State
Archives, Albany)

146

95 Capt. Alexander Thompson, Journal, 1783, (Typescript pro¬
vided by Oswego County Historical Society)

96 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.59-60.

97 William W Campbell, 1849, p.58.

98 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 17.

99 Augustus Porter, Narrative of the Early Years in the Life of
Augustus Porter , Buffalo Historical Society (Buffalo, 1848),
p. 278-280.

100 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 58.

101 William W Campbell, The Life and Writings of De Witt
Clinton (New York, 1849), p.57.

102 James Cockbum, 1792

103 Philip Schuyler to General Williams, Stillwater, July 14,
1793, Philip Schuyler, Papers (New York Public Library)

104 Pomeroy Jones, Annals and Recollections of Oneida Count,
(Rome, 1851), p. 670-671.

105 Memoir of an Emigrant: The Journal of Alexander
Coventry, M, D..., 1783-1831, Vol, II, (Typescript by Albany
Institute of History and Art and the New York State Library,
1978), p.898.

106 Philip Schuyler, July 30 entry. Journal, 1802, The Philip
Schuyler Papers (New York Public Library)

107 Philip Schuyler to George Huntington, Canada Creek,
August 1 1 , 1802. Philip Schuyler, Papers (New York Public
Library)

108 George Huntington to Barent Bleecker, Rome, October 24,

1802. Philip Schuyler, Papers (New York Public Library)

109

Philip Schuyler to George Huntington, New York, May 30,

1803. Philip Schuyler, Papers (New York Public Library)

110 Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1836, p. 121.

111 William Hartshome, 1793, p. 6.

112 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, Travels Through the
United States of North America, The Country of the Iroquois,
and Upper Canada in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797, 4 vols
(London, 1799), Vol.2,p.33.

Extacts From the Vanderkemp Papers, Pubications of the
Buffalo Historical Society, Vol, 2 (Buffalo, 1880), p, 68

114 Philip Schuyler and William Weston, 1796, 1880. p. 163

115 Elkanah Watson to Thomas Eddy, letter, Albany, 1800,
Elkanak Watson, Papers, GB 13294, folder 2, (New York State
Library)

116 Elias Kane and Jonas Platt to Major DeZeng, Whitestown,
May 21 , 1793, Philip Schuyler, Papers (New York Public Library)

117 John Richardson to John Porteous, Wood Creek, November
3, 1793, The Porteous Papers (Buffalo and Erie County
Historical Society),

118 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 34-35.

119 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 59.

120 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 18-19.

121 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 62.

122 James Cockbum, 1792

123 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 20.

124

Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p.747-8.

125

Daniel E. Wager, Our County and Its People: A Descriptive
Work on Oneida County New York, (Boston, 1896), p.56.

126 Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p .748.

127 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 36.

128 James Dean, Letters (Oneida County Historical Society),

129 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.68.

130 William W. Campbell, 1849, p. 61-2.

131 Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p .748-749.

132 Jacob Lindley, 1832, p. 64.

133 John Lees, Journal, Society of Colonial Wars of the State of
Michigan (Detroit, 191 1), p. 20.

134 Lieut. Richard Aylmer to Sir William Johnson, March 16,
1767. Milton W. Hamilton, The Papers of Sir William Johnson,
Vol. XII (Albany, 1953), p.278-9.

135 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p. 68-69.

136 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 21-22.

137 Samuel W. Durant, History of Oneida County, New York
(Philadelphia, 1878), p. 581.

138 Christian Schultz, 1968, p.22.

139 William W Campbell, 1849, p.63.

140 _ , 1849, p. 62-63.

141 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 22-23.

142 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p.36.

143 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 38.

144 The Scriba Papers, Vol. 29 (New York State Library),

145 William W. Campbell, 1849, p. 64.

146 James Cockbum, 1792

147 Christian Schultz, 1968, p.23-24.

147

148 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.80-84.

149 James Cockbum, 1792

150 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 66.

151 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.79.

152 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 24-25.

153 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 64-65.

154 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.80.

155 Crisfield Johnson, History of Oswego County (Philadelphia,
1877), p. 44.

156 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p. 85.

157 Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p.721.

158 The Scriha Papers, Vol. 29 (New York State Library), p.
229-230.

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1799, Vol. II, p.19-20.

160 William W Campbell, 1849, p.67-68.

161 The Scriba Papers, Vol., 29 (New York State Library), p.229.

162 Elkanah Watson to Thomas Eddy, Albany, November 27,
Elkanah Watson Papers, (New York State Library) GB 13294
Box 53, folder 2.

163 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 21.

164 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p. 97.

165 _ , 1880, p.64.

166 _ p. 85.

167 John Lees, 1911, p.2L

168 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p. 86.

169 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 39.

170 Joshua V.H. Clark, Onondaga; or Reminiscence of Earlier
and Later Times, (Syracuse, NY, PA, 1849), p.184-5.

171 Harry Croswell, The Balance & State Journal, Vol. 1, No.5
Jan 29,1811

172 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 26.

173

_ , p .26-27.

174 Harry Croswell, No. 5. January 29, 1811

175 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, Vol. II, 1799, p.19.

176 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 70-72

177 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p. 86-87.

178 James Cockbum, 1792

179 Joshua V. H. Clark, Onondaga; or Reminiscences of Earlier
and Later Times. Vol. 2 (Syracuse, 1849), p.185-6.

180 William W Campbell, 1849, p.73.

181 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p. 87.

182 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 39

183 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.97.

184 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 79.

185 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.87.

186 Christian Schultz, 1968, p.35-36.

187 James Cockbum, 1792

188 Harry Croswell, No. 6., February 5, 1811.

189 William W Campbell, 1849, p.74.

190 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 38

191 John Lees, Journal, Society of Colonial Wars of the State of
Michigan (Detroit, 1911), p. 21.

192 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 74.

193 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 36-37.

194 Jacob Lindley, 1832, p.67.

195 William W. Campbell, 1849, p. 75

196 John Sanders, Centennial Address Relating to the Early
History of Schenectady... (Albany, 1879), p. 247-8.

197 Christian Schultz, 1968, p.5-6.

198 _ , p.34-35.

199 _ , p.37-38.

200 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 76.

201 James Cockbum, A Survey of a Tract of Land, the Property
of John and Nicholas Roosevelt & Co., 1792 (New York State
Archives, Albany)

202 Philip Schuyler, Journal, 1802, The Philip Schuyler Papers
(New York Public Library), July 27 entry.

203 Christian Schultz, 1968, p. 38-39.

204 Rev. Elijah Woolsey, 1830 - 1831, November 12, 1830,
p.44.

205 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p.40.

206 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, Vol. I, p.532-537.

207 Jacob Lindley, 1832, p. 67.

208 Harry Croswell, No. 6., February 5, 1811.

148

209 Charles Storer to John Porteous, Fort Herkimer, May 14,
1793, The Porteous Papers (Buffalo and Erie County Historical
Society)

210 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.90.

211 Rev. Elijah Woolsey, 1830 - 1831, September 24, 1830,

p. 1 6.

212 Rev. Elijah Woolsey, 1830 - 1831, November 12, 1830,
p.44.

213 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1799, Vol. II p.7-9.

214 _ p.10-11.

215

Philip Schuyler, Journal, 1802, The Philip Schuyler Papers
(New York Public Library), July 27 entry.

216 Cadwallader Colden, The Letters and Papers of
Cadwallader Colden, Vol, 1: 1711-1729, Collections of the New
York Historical Society for the Year 1917 (New York, 1918),
p.128.

217 George Henry Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United
Brethren Among the Indians in North America, 1794, Vol. I,
Translated by Christian Ignatius La Trobe, Brethren’s Society
for the Furtherance of the Gospel (London, England), p.53.

218 Capt. Alexander Thompson, Journal, 1783, (Typescript pro¬
vided by Oswego County Historical Society)

219 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p. 97.

220 _ p. 72.

221 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1799, Vol .II, p.12-13.

222 Isaac Weld, 1800, Vol. II, p. 326.

223 John C. Campbell, ed, Landmarks of Oswego County New
York (Syracuse, 1895), p. 734.

224 James Cockbum, 1792

225 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p. 78.

226 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1799, p.21.

227 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.85.

228 _ p. 76.

229 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, Vol.I, p.24-26.

230 Lewis Beers, Journal, 1797 (DeWitt Historical Society of
Tompkins County), p. 116.

231 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.7 8.

232 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, Vol. II, p. 21-22.

233 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, Vol. II, p.21-22.

234 The Scriba Papers, Vol. 29, p. 172, April 6, 1804.

235 William W Campbell, 1849, p. 66.

236 Colonel Gabriel Christie to John Pownall, January 1 1 ,1776
(Public Record Office) Great Britian.

237 Barent Bleecher to Philip Schuyler , Albany, March 7, 1796,
The Philip Schuyler Papers (New York Public Library).

238 William Morton, Journal, 1798, SCI 1451 (New York State
Library), p.73-74.

239

Franklin B. Hough, Notices of Peter Penet and of his
Operations Among the Oneida Indians (Lowville, 1866), p.19.

240 The Rohde Journal, 1802, (Translation by Charles Gehring
in progress, p.c.)

241

Jack Henke, Oneida Lake (Utica: North Country Books,

Inc., 1989), p. 86.

242 Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1836, p. 127-128

243 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p. 20-21.

244 Jacob Lindley, 1832, p. 65.

245 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p.24.

245 _ , p. 22-23.

246 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p.41.

247 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p. 21-22

248

Joseph Bloomfield, Journal, in Citizen Soldier: The
Revolutionary War Journal of Joseph Bloomfield, Edited by
Mark E, Lender and James Kirby Martin . (Newark, New Jersey:
New Jersey Historical Society, 1982), p.66.

249 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p.22-23

250 Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, 1960, p.96.

251 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, Vol. I, p. 281 .

252 Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, 1794, p. 345.

253 Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p. 866.

254 _ _ , p.867.

255 J.A. Graham, A Descriptive Sketch of the Present State of
Vermont ( London, 1797), p. 161.

256 Timothy Dwight, Travels: In New England and New York, 4
vols (London, 1823), Vol. 3 p. 180.

257 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p.30.

258 Moses DeWitt to Simeon DeWitt, Oneida, October 31 ,

1793. Simeon DeWitt, Papers (Syracuse University Library)

259 William Hartshome, 1793, p. 4.

260 Extracts From the Vanderkemp Papers, 1880, p.51-52.

261 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p. 25.

262 _ p. 19.

149

263 Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p. 498.

264 Capt. Charles Williamson, Journal, In Frank. E. Przybycien,
Utica: A City Worth Saving (Utica: Dodge-Graphic Press,
1976), p.25-26.

265 Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, 1960, p. 93

266 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, Vol. I, p.293-295.

"67 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p. 18.

268 Timothy Dwight, Vol .II, p.118-119.

269 Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p.498.

270 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p.14.

271 Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, 1794, p. 244 & p.
375.

272 _ , 1794, p. 375.

Elkanah Watson to Thomas Eddy. Letter Report on Status of
Inland Navigation. Nov. 27, 1800., Elkanah Watson, Papers, GB
13294 (New York State Library)

289 The Scriba Papers, Vol., 2, 1804, p. 218-221.

290 The Scriba Papers, Vol., 29 (New York State Library), 1804,
p.219-220.

291 _ , p.218.

292 Jeremy Belknap, 1882, p. 15.

293

Jeptha R. Simms, 1845, p.71.

Daniel E. Wager, 1896, p. 78.

274

Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p. 496-497.

275 Pomeroy Jones, Annals and Recollections of Oneida
County, (Rome, 1851), p.498.

276 _ , p.500-501.

"77 John Sanders, Centennial Address Relating to the Early
History of Schenectady... (Albany, 1879), p. 248.

278 Pomeroy Jones, 1851, p.500-501.

279 William Hartshome, 1793, p. 4.

280 Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1836, p. 119.

281 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p. 34.

282 “Second Report of the Western Inland Lock Navigation
Company - 1798”. Buffalo Historical Society Publications.
(Buffalo, 1909), Vol. 13, p. 201-202.

283 Philip Schuyler, Manuscript report, Albany, August 18,

1802, Philip Schuyler, Papers (New York Public Library)

284 Elkanah Watson, 1820, p.34.

~85 DeWitt Clinton to David Thomas, Albany, December 23,
1825, David Thomas Papers, (New York State Library)

286 William W Campbell, 1849, p.58.8

287 Elkanah Watson to Thomas Eddy. Letter Report on Status of
Inland Navigation. Nov. 27, 1800, Elkanah Watson, Papers, GB
13294 (New York State Library)

Rufus Grider, Notebooks, (New York State Library),

Vol. 8, p.73.

295

Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1799, Vol. II, p.45-47.

296 Simon Desjardin and Pierre Pharoux, 1794, p.344.

297

_ ,1794, p.376.

298 Simon Desjardin and Pierre Pharoux, The Castorland
Journal , 1795,p.519.

299

Simon Desjardin and Pierre Pharoux, The Castorland
Journal, 1796, p.587-8.

300 Elkanah Watson to Thomas Eddy. Letter Report on Status of
Inland Navigation. Nov. 27, 1800, Elkanah Watson, Papers, GB
13294 (New York State Library)

301 William W Campbell, 1849, p.44-45.

302 Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, 1795, p.519.

303 William W Campbell, 1849, p.40.

304 Jeptha R. Simms, 1882, Vol. 1, p.352.

305

_ , p.352.

306 Capt. Charles Williamson, Journal, In Frank. E. Przybycien
(Utica: A City Worth Saving (Utica: Dodge-Graphic Press,

1976), p. 25.

307 Jeptha R. Simms, 1845 , p. 350-354
Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1799, Vol. II, p. 49,

51.

, p .49-50.

310 Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 1836, p. 115.

311 Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, 1799, Vol. II, p. 52-54.

150

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151

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152

Illustration Sources

Locations on page are indicated as R (right), L (left), T (top) and
B (bottom). Arranged in order of first appearance of source.

Unless otherwise noted, all published works were obtained from
the New York State Library.

Manuscripts in the New York State Library are indicated as
NYSL.

Manuscripts in the New York State Archives are indicated as
NYSA.

Pictures

Schultz, “Travels on an Inland Voyage...” 1810: front cover.
Diderot, “Encyclopedia.... “, 1762-77: 2
Image Collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art: 6R
Bryant, “Picturesque America...”, 1872: 10,94, 114
Grider, “Notebooks...”, c.l 880 (NYSL): 13, 18, 133, 144
Barber & Howe, “Historical Collections..., 1841: 14, 111, 135
Barber, “Historical Collections...”, 1851: 66, 72R
Simms, “History of Schoharie County..., 1845: 14R
Drepperd, “Pioneer America..., 1949: 16, 40, 49, 50, 63, 100B
New York Historical Society, Image files: 22R, 109B

Lossing, “Pictorial Fieldbook of the American Revolution...”,
1850: 22L, 31, 70, 100T

Lossing, “Our Country...”, 1885: 24, 42

Courtesy Wayne E. Morrison, private collection: 26L

Hardin, “History of Herkimer County...”, 1893: 26R

New York Public Library, image collections: 30

National Archives Canada, image collections: 34, 139

Fort Stanwix National Monument, image collections: 38L, 38R

Courtesy Richard Nutt, private collection: 46R

Bucks County Historical Society, n.d.: 52, 80

Turner, “Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase...”, 1850: 55,
117

American Museum of Natural History, image collections: 68
Campbell, “Travels in the Interior...”, 1791-2: 76, 140
Oswego County Department of Tourism, image collections: 79
National Park Service, Image collections: 93
Vermont Division of Historic Preservation, image collections: 103

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic
Preservation, image collections: 104

St. Louis Mercantile Library, image collections: 106
New York State Museum, image collections: 109T, 124
Ellis, “Upper Mohawk Country...”, 1982: 123

Taylor, “Missionary Tour Through the Mohawk Valley...”, 1802:
125

Evans, “The Young Millwright...”, 1807: 132.

Van Wagenen, “The Golden Age of Homespun”, 1953: 141
Van Berkhey, “Natuurlijke Historic.. ”, 1810: 142
Courtesy Chris Sandford, private collection: Back cover.

Maps

Chapter head maps: Upper - Kitchin, “Communication between
Albany and Oswego”, 1772 (NYSL). Lower - Drawn for this
publication, 2000, New York State Museum

DeWitt, “Albany...”, 1794 (NYSL): 5

Rivez, “Hudson River...”, 1757, Huntington Library: 6L

Wright, “Survey of the Mohawk Valley...”, 1803, Oneida County
Historical Society: 7L,12, 15, 23T, 23B,27, 69, 126, 134.

Rocque, “A Plan of Schenectady...”, 1762, (NYSL): 7R

Wright, “Mohawk Valley...”, 1811 (Canal Museum of New York):

16

Maps in the Scriba Papers (NYSL - by cartographer or subject)
Anon., c. 1795: 45,56
Cockbum, 1792: 39
Cockbum, 1795: 107
Roosevelt, 1792: 61, 71
Rotterdam, 1797: 102
Scriba, 1795: 72L, 77,99
Wright, 1794: 73, 94
Wright, 1795: 76, 92
Wright, 1796: 62
Wright, 1798: 67

DeWitt, “A Drawing of the Portage...”, 1792 (NYSL): 25

Anon., 1757 (The British library): 32

Randel, “A Map of Rome...”, 1809 (NYSL): 41

Crown Collection (NYSL): 46L, 85, 86

Schuyler, “Late Oneida Reservation...”, c.1796 (NYSA): 51

Wright, “A Map of Lands Along Fish Creek...”, 1809 (NYSA):
54, 57

Sauthier, “A Chorographical Map...”, 1779 (NYSL): 98
Geddes, “Map of the First Pagan Purchase...”, 1809 (NYSA): 108
Schuyler, “Oneida Castle...”, 1798 (NYSA): 115
Kitchin, “Communication...”, 1772 (NYSL): 128

153

155

Few voyagers heading west on the inland waterways of the 1790s ever saw
the Great Falls at Cohoes, near the mouth of the Mohawk River. But it was this
obstruction that prevented direct navigation west from the Hudson and which
forced them onto an overland trek of sixteen miles through sand and pine barrens to
the harbor at Schenectady. This book follows the account of one boatload of adventurers
as they made this journey in the autumn of 1793. Their observations along the route
to the Great Lakes and back again provides an unprecedented glimpse of life on
the edge of the American Frontier after the Revolution, and records the first tentative
experiments in artificial navigation in the New York State- an emergent canal age
decades before the Erie Canal.

The New York.State Museum is a program of The University of the State of- New York
The State Education Department